What the? Not again
by ShadowPirate
Summary: The second story in my small trilogy in which strange things begin to happen again to Alex, Tom, and Phi...
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hola, and welcome to my next story in my most favorite "What the?" Trilogy. Once again, I apologize for the original commentary from here on out, but all I have to blame is my laziness and overload of homework...  
  
***  
  
Alex slammed his car door shut and looked around. It was the first day of Winter Break and after spending six weeks straight on UC Davis's campus, he was ready to go home for the holidays. The only thing he needed to do first was pick up Tom from Stanford. He sighed and began to walk towards the dorm rooms, his hands stuffed in his jacket pocket to escape the freezing wind, and he felt his necklace bump against his chest every time he took a step. It had been two and a half years since he got that thing and he had never taken it off after he happily discovered that it was waterproof. Bad things seemed to pass him by when he wore it and sometimes he even suspected that somehow it's magic had helped him get into Davis.  
  
As he trudged through the gardens of one of the most prestigious schools in the United States, he admired how clean and well kept it looked. Of course, Davis's campus was kept up to, but Stanford's looked three times more expensive. It had cost Tom an arm and a leg to get in. His family wasn't poor, his dad being a doctor and all, but they weren't exactly billionaires and they figured that Tom should help pay for some of it. Luckily, he was able to grab tons of scholarships to pay for some of it.  
  
Alex walked up a flight of stairs to the second story of the dorm rooms, looked at a piece of paper with some numbers scribbled on it, then back at the number on the door. Tom had called him yesterday and asked if he would come and pick him up. The old car he had really belonged to his dad and after they got it back after it had been towed, he wasn't really allowed to drive it anymore. The two sets of numbers matched and Alex banged on the door impatiently.  
  
A voice from inside called out, "It's open!" so Alex shrugged and walked inside. He grinned and closed the door. Tom was sitting on his bed with his laptop open, and ripping up the keypad, he was trying to type so fast. Alex shook his head, "Dude, you really have to relax. There's no way I would type anything for school that fast..."  
  
Tom looked up at him and smiled evilly, "But I bet you do when you are e-mailing Phi..."  
  
Alex blushed and sat down next to his friend, not quite comfortable with discussing his relationship with Phi yet with Tom, being that he was her older brother and all, "So are you ready to go or what?"  
  
"Almost...I just need to finish this paper for my Bioengineering  
professor..."  
  
Alex looked at him, "Aren't you also taking Aeronautics and Astronautics  
and Mechanical Engineering courses?" Tom glanced up for a minute as if trying to think of something to write, then turned to Alex, "Yup...Why?"  
  
Alex shrugged, "I'm just thinking that you might have given yourself a little to much to do in your sophomore year of college...then again, you took half of your beginning required courses in high school last year, so what do I know..."  
  
Tom grinned, "Well, maybe your right, but so far, I'm not doing all that badly, so I think I might stick with it for now...Do you know what a good career choice for you is yet?"  
  
"Nope, still haven't figured out what I want to be when I grow up, even though I already did most of the growing...But don't even suggest that I become a doctor, 'cause there is no way that I am going to medical school on top of a four to six year college."  
  
Tom laughed and closed his laptop, "Alright! I'm finished. Let's go."  
  
He began to walk towards the door but Alex stopped him, "Aren't you forgetting something? Like a suitcase, or a duffel bag?"  
  
Tom opened the door and stepped outside, "The best thing about going home is that you don't need one."  
  
Alex grinned, "Don't be so sure. My mom called and said that Dad turned my room into his new office and all my stuff was stashed in his old one which is about the size of that cell I stayed in back in Tortall..."  
  
As the two walked down to Alex's car, Tom glanced at his watch and began to jog, "Alex! It's already noon! We should have left an hour ago!"  
  
Alex followed him, unlocked the car doors to let him jump in and started the engine, "I hope we don't keep anyone waiting..."  
  
***Phi's View***  
  
She banged her head against the desk and groaned. It was the last day of school before Christmas break and she was stuck in Friday detention. She just had to pick a fight with that annoying boy from PE...of course things like that were pretty tempting when you have a magical necklace on that will protect you from harm, including punches from stupid, stuck up jocks. It's not that she had anything against people who play sports or anything, it's just that he was teasing her because she screamed when she saw a spider and she lots her temper. Phi grinned. He never had a chance...  
  
She was a senior in high school, and extremely bored. This was her second detention of the year, which was pretty good for her, but her mom would still be mad. However, the thing that was bothering her most right now was that Tom and Alex were coming back from college for a week and she wanted to be home when they got there. She sighed and leaned back in her chair, looking around the room, especially at the clock that was hanging over the door. Good only five more minutes and twenty-two seconds to go...wait a minute, the clock just stopped. She slammed her head back on her desk and a boy diagonal from her smirked. She glared at him, slouched down in her chair, and began to fiddle with her necklace. So...bored...  
  
The bell rung and Phi jumped to her feet and practically sprinted towards the parking lot, trying to remember where she parked her motorcycle. It wasn't that she really wanted a motorcycle mind you, it was just that she couldn't afford anything else besides a bicycle and she wanted something that went fast.  
  
Her friends still made fun of her for riding it though, but she had grown used to the ridicule and fonder of her bike. One especially nice plus that she enjoyed was being able to swerve in and out of traffic on the freeway and other busy streets, which came in handy during rush hour.  
  
After running through the parking lot, she finally found her bike trapped behind some idiot who had tried to park in her spot . She glared evilly at the teen who was coming up to her, the same guy who had smirked at her in detention, "I suppose you want me to move my truck so you can get your motorcycle out, huh?"  
  
She continued to glare but answered curtly, "If it wouldn't be to much trouble...YES!"  
  
The boy stepped closer, "Fine, but it's gonna cost you..."  
  
She sighed and got onto her bike, strapping her helmet on, "On second thought, I don't think I need your help at all..." She revved up the engine and went flying out of the parking spot, managing to kick up a good amount of dirt into the boy's face and make a lovely scratch on the side of his truck. He swore at her as she tore out of the parking lot. It serves him right, she thought.  
  
As she drove down the street towards her house, she remembered that Tom had told her never to go above fifty on a motorcycle. She frowned and slowed down a bit. Of course, he hadn't been very happy about her choice in transportation at all, and for that matter, neither had her dad. They both claimed that motorcycle accidents resulted in the most deaths of any other kind of car crash, although Tom didn't seem to worry. He knew that nothing too bad could happen as long as she had her necklace on, but he still freaked out sometimes because he thought that she would forget to wear it. Unlikely...  
  
After fifteen minutes of driving, she finally pulled up in front of her house. Phi sighed with relief for two reasons. One was that there was no sign of Alex's car in the driveway, and two, because it had just started to rain and riding a bike in the rain was really not a fun thing to do.  
  
She jumped off and wheeled her bike under to overhang of the house in the side yard to protect it from the water and ran into the house, swinging her half-empty backpack behind her. As she tiptoed into her living room, trying to hide from her mom, a voice called out from the kitchen, "Phi? Is that you?" Oh crap...  
  
"Ya mom...Um, what can I do for you?"  
  
Her mom stepped out of the kitchen with her hands on her hips, "You can start be telling me where you have been..."  
  
"Um..." she crinkled up the detention slip that needed to be singed by a parent in her hand, "Hanging out with my friends?"  
  
Her mom frowned but walked back into the kitchen. Phi exhaled. She would ask Tom to sign it. After all, he is older than 18...he counts as an adult...She began to walk upstairs to her room when a thought struck her, "Oh! Hey mom, where are Tom and Alex?"  
  
"They called about an hour ago. They got stuck in some traffic and won't be home for about another hour or so. While you're waiting, you could start your homework or help me in the kitchen, your choice."  
  
Phi scowled, "I think I'll go do my homework..." That way it would be easier to goof off.  
  
She flopped down on her bed and pulled out her Physics textbook and stared at it blankly. It wasn't fair. How could they give homework to kids on vacations? It kind of defeated the purpose of the whole "vacationing" idea. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling. The smell of Christmas cookies began to waft up to her room and suddenly she was very hungry. She looked out the window and wished that Tom and Alex would get home soon so they could eat. They would also be more exciting people to be around then her parents were.  
  
Finally, after about half an hour of zoning off, she heard the screech of a car pulling up into their driveway and the slam of a car door. She leapt up and ran down the stairs. Her mom made it to the door first and opened it to Alex and Tom, who were both very wet. Her mom grabbed Tom in a big hug, despite the fact that we was dripping wet, and led them both into the living room to sit down, rushing over to the closet to get towels for them to sit on.  
  
Phi grinned and walked down the stairs, "I see neither of you brought umbrellas..."  
  
Her brother turned around, "I wouldn't be talking Phi...your hair is still dripping..."  
  
Alex smiled, but stayed where he was. It was good to see Phi again, and she hadn't really changed at all in three years. She had grown a little more, taller and in other ways, but the only real difference was that her hair was cut shorter to her shoulders. She walked over, sat down next to Tom, and handed him something discreetly as their mother came back with the towels, then went back into the kitchen, "Er...I need you to sign this..."  
  
Tom sighed and unfolded the paper, reading everything carefully with that poker face of his that Phi hated. You could never tell what he was thinking, "Phi...what is this for?"  
  
"Nothing...okay...I was...fightingwiththisboyfromPEbeacusehewasteasingmeaboutmyfearofspiders..."  
  
He stared at her, "What?"  
  
She gave him her best puppy-dog look, "Pwease sign it? I don't want Mom or Dad to find out...It's only my second one this year..."  
  
Alex laughed, "Only your second? So, what about this boy in your PE class?"  
  
Tom looked from Phi to Alex, "You understood what she said? I must be getting tired or something...Fine, I'll sign it...but this is the last time I'm saving your butt..."  
  
She grinned and quickly folded the paper back up as their mom came back into the room, "Diner will be ready as soon as your father gets home. Alex, you're certainly welcome to stay if you want since your parents are out of town."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"It's no problem dear..."  
  
Alex turned to Phi as her mom left again, "What's for dinner?"  
  
She frowned thoughtfully, "I'm not quite sure because I went upstairs to do my homework as soon as I got home..." Alex snorted disbelievingly and she elbowed him in the side, "But I think there is going to be ham, mashed potatoes, some kind of green vegetable, bread, and other stuff..."  
  
Alex leaned back, "That all sounds good to me...Better than McDonalds anyway, which would be where I would probably be going if I didn't stay..."  
  
They heard the sound of a second car coming in, and Phi jumped up and jogged to the dinning room table, "Dinner time!"  
  
Their dad came in, hung up his rain jacket, and then paused before sitting down at the table to give Tom a quick hug, "It's good to see you boys again, and it's good to see that dinner's already on the table! Your mom must have gotten off of work early to do all this."  
  
He sat down and Phi smiled, "She took the whole day off..."  
  
Their mom sat down next to her husband, "Shh! Don't tell him that! If he thinks that I went to work today too, then that's even better!"  
  
Their dad grinned and started the meal, which lasted about an hour. At the end, every one was full to bursting and wiped from the day's work.  
  
Tom and Phi's parents retired early after cleaning up after diner and Tom went up to get out his stuff, most of which his mother had put away in the down stairs closet. Phi sighed and sat down on the couch next to Alex, who had just turned on the TV quietly and was channel surfing. He smiled as she sat down next to him, "It's good to be here again..."  
  
She grinned, "Oh really? Why?"  
  
He blushed, "Well, the home cooked meals are a nice change, and the hills, the weather...you."  
  
This time it was her turn to blush. He put the remote control down next to her and leaned over.  
  
Tom had just managed to gather a box of his things and was just about to go upstairs when something caught his eye. He grinned as he watched Alex lean over and kiss Phi who put her arms around his neck. He shook his head and walked upstairs, thinking to himself, I will have to keep an eye on them...  
  
Phi pulled away when she heard Tom's door close and grinned at Alex, "I think he saw us..."  
  
Alex looked at her, "We better stop then before we worry him to much..." He stood up and walked to the front door, "I'll see you guys tomorrow..."  
  
She nodded, then headed upstairs. When she was just about to step into her room, Tom opened his door and poked his head out, "It looked like you two were having a good time down there..."  
  
She glared at him and her blush deepened. He laughed and shut his door as a pillow came hurdling at him and he sat down on his bed to go through the piles of his old clothes, trying to find his extra pair of jeans for the next day.  
  
A/N: Okay...that was the first chapter of my new story! I hoped you all liked it okay, and if you are wondering, which I know some of you are, they will meet up with some of the Tortallian folk eventually, don't worry. I just need to find a good intro-ness first, if ya know what I mean. Oh! For all you readers from the last story who wanted more Phi/Alex, note that I am putting more in for you guys now that they are all a little older...(To Gabie from the last story: I won't tell you how old I am! That would ruin the fun and my author's name! Shadows have no age! Wahahahahaha!!)(I'll tell you this much: I am a younger teenager...) 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hmm...I'm starting to come up with a plot line, which is a good thing!  
  
Phi's eyes blinked open and she sat up in bed, looking around sleepily. What had woken her up? She rubbed her eyes, yawned and looked at her alarm clock, it was three o'clock in the morning. She was about to go back to sleep when she heard a noise from down stairs. She froze and her heart started to pound, who was in her house in the middle of the night?  
  
Phi inched out of bed, fell quietly to the ground, and slowly turned her doorknob. She opened the door gently and flinched as it let out a long, high-pitched squeak. She held her breath and listened but everything was silent again, until she heard someone opening the front window and pulling out the screen. She walked with her back against the wall trying to convince herself that it was just Alex playing a practical joke or one of Tom's college friends that followed him home.  
  
She slowly opened Tom's bedroom door and tiptoed over to the side of his bed, "Tom...wake up..." She poked him several times, wishing that their parents slept in the third upstairs guest bedroom instead of the one downstairs.  
  
Tom brushed her hand away and yawned, "What's the matter?"  
  
Phi sighed with relief and whispered, "There is someone downstairs..."  
  
He sat up in his bed, "What?"'  
  
She crept over to his slightly open door, motioned for him to be quiet, and pointed down the stairs. He nodded and followed her down to the bottom of the stairwell to spy on whoever was in their house.  
  
Tom strained his hearing and caught a few words that the person was saying. Only there wasn't only one person, there was two, "Are you sure...right house?"  
  
"We followed...like he said...turn on...lantern!"  
  
Tom's heart stopped as he realized that something was wrong. He forced his brain to think but it seemed to be frozen. What was wrong? He turned to Phi and looked her straight in the eyes. She seemed to be having the same problem. They didn't know the voices...he was sure if that were the case Phi would recognize them immediately.  
  
He turned back around and jogged quietly up the stairs to his room. He ran in and grabbed the tape recorder on his desk that he used when he was experimenting with things and ran back down to where Phi was still standing and turned it on. She looked at him and grinned, racking her brain for any hints to help her realize what was going on.  
  
Just as suddenly as they had come, the two voices left, and Phi and Tom were left looking curiously at each other from the bottom of the staircase. Phi waved a shaky goodnight to her brother, then went back into her room, locking the door behind her, and settled in for a restless night.  
  
When the sun rose, Tom hopped out of bed and walked quickly down the stairs to see what had happened while his parents had been sleeping. He peered around the corner and, seeing nothing that looked potentially dangerous, crept into the family room, which was at the bottom of the staircase and where the people had been. Tom looked curiously around for anything out of place, but found nothing. He turned around and almost died of a heart attack when he found his father staring curiously at him from the opening of the room, "What in the world are you looking for Tom?"  
  
"I uh...er...well," he sighed and handed his dad the tape recorder, "Do you know who this is?"  
  
His father pressed play then after listening for a few minutes pressed stop and looked down at Tom with an odd look in his eyes, "No, I don't, but I can't make heads or tails of what they're saying either..."  
  
Tom frowned and pressed play, listening carefully to what was recorded, "The person is telling the other about how they hope they got the right house..."  
  
His father's forehead creased with worry and he walked into the room, "Son, all I can hear is a bunch of gibberish..."  
  
"No, they're speaking in English! Phi could understand it too! And if we both know it then...what...else...could...it...be..." His voice trailed off and he suddenly he sprinted past his dad, leapt back up the stairs, and launched himself into Phi's room.  
  
She fell out of her bed when her door was slammed open and glared at him. Tom hoisted her up and threw some pants at her, "Get dressed! We're going over to Alex's now!"  
  
She grimaced at being ordered around, but shoved the pants over her PJ shorts and followed her brother out of the house and down the street a block. Tom ran up to the corner house and banged on the door, "Alex! Wake up! It's us, and there is something very weird and potentially dangerous going on!!"  
  
Phi ran up to the porch just as Alex whipped open the door, gasping for breath, unused to having worked so hard physically just after waking up. Their friend looked curiously at the two and led them inside his house, closing the door and locking it behind them.  
  
Tom walked up to him and handed him the tape player, "Play it and tell me if you can understand them..."  
  
Alex looked from Tom, to Phi, to the tape player, gave Tom this I-hope-you- know-I-think-you're-crazy look and pressed play. The voices came up again and he turned to Tom, "Ya I can understand them, but...something about it...it's not right, but...I don't know what..."  
  
He handed the tape player back to Tom who sat down on his friend's couch. He stared at the machine thoughtfully for a few minutes before looking up at Phi and Alex, "I know what's wrong, and so do the both of you...You just haven't realized it yet."  
  
They looked at him curiously, urging him with their eyes to go on. He sighed and held out the tape player, "These men aren't speaking English..."  
  
Alex frowned, "What?! Of course they are! I can understand them just as well as I can you or Phi!"  
  
"But my dad couldn't. He didn't understand them at all..." He looked directly at his sister, then at Alex, "Think about it. What language do we know that no one else does? What language would sound as normal as English to us, but isn't?"  
  
Phi's eyes grew wide, "There is no way..."  
  
Alex finally understood what Tom had figured out, "Oh my god...they were speaking Tortallian!"  
  
Tom turned to him, "Exactly..."  
  
Phi interrupted him, "What are we going to do? What person do we know from Tortall that would break into our house in our world, have a conversation in our family room, and then leave without even waking us up? For that matter, who do we know besides Numair that can do trans- dimensional travel things?"  
  
Tom shrugged, "No one, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough..."  
  
Alex sat down next to him, "What do you mean?"  
  
"It seems kind of silly for two people to travel who knows how far through space to the exact place and time where we are living, and not want to do something with us..."  
  
Phi stared out the window, "Ya, but are they our friends or not..."  
  
"That is the real question..."  
  
Alex stood up, "This is ridiculous! The only enemy that I remember having when we went to Tortall was Dausael, but he's dead Tom! I know he died, so don't go telling me he didn't! "  
  
"I know he's dead Alex, but there are other people besides him!"  
  
Phi turned to her brother, "Like who?"  
  
"Like every Scanran that was in any way connected with Dausael and his troops. Do you realize that by being captured and rescued we three probably helped to destroy the only real foothold that the Scanrans had in their war against Tortall? Any of them who are mages could have accidentally discovered a way to travel through dimensions, just like Numair did, and now they are out in revenge or something?"  
  
Alex looked nervously at Tom, "That is a pretty far-fetched idea you know...there's like a one in a million chance that it is true. Besides, don't you think that if the two people in your house last night were really Scanran mages bent on revenge, that they would have just left you two alive? Maybe if they had tried to kill you..."  
  
Tom rested his forehead on his hands, "I don't know what to think anymore...All I know is that people from another dimension that only we know about are stalking us and we can't tell anyone about it in our world because they'll think we've gone insane..."  
  
Phi sat down heavily next to her brother and sighed, "And all I wanted was a nice Christmas break away from the pressures of school..."  
  
Alex looked at her from over Tom's head, "I don't think that is going to happen...not this year anyway..."  
  
A/N: OK...sigh another chapter written...hmm...what should happen next? 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I've finally thought of something to write! Yay!!  
  
The next day, the one after Phi and Tom had discovered strange people breaking into their house, was Christmas Eve. Their parents invited Alex to spend the holiday with them because his parents still weren't home from visiting family in Mexico. Alex wasn't able to go with them due to his classes and gladly accepted. It was a pretty uneventful night as Tom was basically spending all of his spare time thinking about what they should do next. There was so much stuff going on on Christmas that Phi and Alex didn't even bother to think about their current problem. Only on the day after Christmas did Tom bring the subject up again, after Alex had gone back to his house and their parents were asleep.  
  
He slipped into Phi's room to find that she was still awake, thankfully, and staring up at the ceiling of her room, "Phi? Can I come in?"  
  
She jumped a little, then grinned and nodded her head, "Sure, since you would've even if I said no..."  
  
"Have you thought anymore about the visitors that we had a couple nights ago?"  
  
"Um...yes...maybe...no..."  
  
Tom smirked and pulled up her desk chair next to the edge of her bed, "That's what I thought...well, I have anyway and I suppose that if there are people from Tortall running around in our dimension, we are going to have to meet up with them eventually, right?"  
  
Phi nodded hesitantly, "So you're saying that we let them find us?"  
  
"Basically..."  
  
She stared at him blankly, "How do you know they won't just kill us on the spot?"  
  
He shrugged and leaned back in the chair, "I don't..."  
  
Phi sighed and looked back up at her ceiling, "Well before we endanger our lives, we should probably let Alex in on our plan so he can risk his too..."  
  
Tom smiled, "We'll go over to his house tomorrow and work out the details..."  
  
She nodded and he put his chair back and left the room. As he closed her door again, a strange sinking feeling filled his stomach . He shook his head as if to clear his head and walked back down the second story hall to his own bedroom.  
  
***Next morning...***  
  
Phi was woken up again by a strange sound and it took her several panicked seconds to realize that it was just someone knocking on her door. She slammed her face into her pillow and for a few minutes let her pounding heart return to a normal pulse before calling out in a muffled voice, "Ya?"  
  
Her mother's own voice drifted from somewhere outside in the hall and she had to listen hard to what she was staying to be able to understand her. Obviously, her mom was trying to tell Tom and Phi something at the same time and was standing in the middle of the hall, "I just wanted to let you both know that your father and I are going on a little vacation for about four days. We're going to go visit your aunt in Arizona...either of you can come if you want..."  
  
Phi heard Tom snort from his bedroom and felt a grimace play on her face. There was no way that they were going to get her out of bed to go stay with her aunt. She was nice and all...well, no she wasn't.  
  
Phi heard her dad drag a suitcase noisily down the stairs and sat up slowly, letting her bed sheets fall to her floor. She stood up and stretched, then stumbled over to her dresser and pulled on some khaki cargo pants and a black sweatshirt. She yawned again as she started disdainfully at her tennis shoes and with a shrug pulled on her sandals.  
  
She walked over to her mirror, ran a brush through her hair and opened her door to find Tom leaning against the wall waiting for her. He grinned, "I'm glad to see that you remembered that we were going to see Alex today...I wasn't sure that you would..."  
  
"Of course I remembered...Are mom and dad gone yet?"  
  
"They just finished pulling out of the driveway when you opened your door." He began to walk energetically down the stairs, "Come on!"  
  
She glared at him, then slowly trudged down the staircase after him and followed him out of the front door, watching as he locked it, "How can you be this...awake...this early?"  
  
"At college you learn how to wake up fast...that way, you can sleep in later without missing class."  
  
She continued to glare, but this time at the ground as they walked the block to Alex's house. The sun was just about to rise over the green, rolling hills and a thick layer of fog was hovering low over the pavement that was still wet from last night's shower.  
  
Tom zoned out while he was walking and his mind began to drift. He felt the rhythmic thumping of his necklace on his chest and the sound of the trees moving in the breeze. After a while, he felt a tug on his sleeve and quickly looked down, only to find that it was Phi trying to get him to snap out of it. They were standing in front of Alex's house now and he had almost walked right past it.  
  
Phi gave him a faint grin, "I guess you're not as awake as you look..."  
  
Tom frowned a little, then made his way up to the front porch and rapped on his friend's front door. No answer. He sighed and leaned against it. No duh Alex didn't answer. Just like Phi he liked to sleep in. Tom looked at his sister, "Okay...what now?"  
  
Phi looked around and smiled. Tom stood back up to see what had caught her eye and scowled, "No way am I going to let you go up there..." There was a ladder leaning against the side of the garage that led to the roof. Alex's bedroom was on the second floor facing the street and Tom could just make out a faint glow coming from inside the room. He turned back to Phi only to find that she was already half way up the ladder. He shouted in alarm but only made it in time to hold the ladder steady as she climbed up onto the shingled roof and made her way over to the window.  
  
Phi peered inside the house and grinned. Alex was face down on top of his bed with his TV on low, which accounted for the soft glow that Tom had seen from the ground. He was still fully dressed from yesterday and it looked like he had fallen to sleep while watching something on television. She knocked loudly on the glass and his eyes flew open. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. When his gaze drifted over the window Phi smiled and waved at him. He waved sleepily back, did a double take and said something inaudible under his breath. He flung open his bedroom window and glared at her while trying to smooth out his hair, "What the hell are you doing Phi?"  
  
She grinned, "Well from the look on your face, I would say that I was trying to get myself killed." Her grin widened at his confused expression and she messed up his hair, "It looked better like that..."  
  
He blushed but ran his fingers through his hair as if to flatten it down again and then helped her through the window and pushed her out of his room, "What are you doing here anyway?"  
  
"Tom wanted us to get together so we could scheme up away to get the attention of those people who came into our house three nights ago..."  
  
"What?!?"  
  
"That's what he said...ask him yourself. He's waiting for you to open the door outside..."  
  
Alex stopped pushing Phi, jogged to his front door, and swung it open. Tom stepped in and hung his jacket up on the coat hanger, "It's about time!" He grinned as he took in Alex's disheveled appearance, "I hope we didn't wake you..."  
  
Alex rolled his eyes and motioned for them to sit down on his couch, "So, what's the plan?"  
  
"I guess Phi's already told you why we are here then...good. So um...ya..."  
  
"Well..." Phi smiled jokingly, "We could run outside and scream out swear words in Tortallian...that would catch their attention..."  
  
Tom shook his head, "It might, but it also might catch the police's...That would be fun, have our mom and dad come back to bail us out of jail..."  
  
Alex looked at them quizzically, "What?"  
  
Phi turned to him, "Our parents abandoned us for a week so they could visit our aunt in Arizona."  
  
"Oh...That's the aunt you guys don't like, right?" Phi and Tom nodded and Alex looked blankly at the floor, "Let's go to your house then."  
  
Tom stared at Alex, "Why?"  
  
His friend grinned, "'Cause I'm starving and you guys have better food!" Phi shook her head and they stood up and went out the front door.  
  
As the three strolled down the street, talking about nothing as they went, Tom had that strange feeling in his stomach again. He looked up and scanned the area, taking long looks at all the houses and bushes. Phi stopped to stare at her brother and glanced worriedly at Alex who shook Tom's shoulder lightly, "Hey...what's the matter?"  
  
Tom shook his head to clear it, just as he had the night before and shrugged, "Nothing...it's nothing..."  
  
Phi wasn't quite sure though and kept looking back over her shoulder as they continued down the road. They were just about to pass in front of Phi and Tom's neighbor's house when Phi stopped dead in her tracks. She watched curiously as a large shadow drifted over them, turned, then swooped back behind them. A cold shiver ran down her spine and as Tom and Alex stopped to wait for her, she slowly turned around.  
  
Nothing.  
  
She swallowed and couldn't remember feeling that frightened since...well since the last time they were in Tortall actually. Alex walked over next to her and grabbed her hand reassuringly, "Come on Phi...let's hurry up..."  
  
She nodded but pressed closer to him, not understanding what had freaked her out and why the feeling wouldn't leave. They were heading up the front walkway when Phi glanced back again. Only this time, something was actually there.  
  
She swore and threw herself to the ground, dragging Alex down with her. As he looked back too, a huge thing flew over their heads, missing them by only a foot. Tom had dove behind a hedge and peered out from behind it, "Oh shit...it's an immortal!"  
  
Phi turned to him, "A what!?!"  
  
Tom called over to her, keeping his eyes on the beast as it made another pass overhead and got ready for another dive, "I can't remember what they're called but they're horse like creatures with wings and very sharp teeth! Very bad!"  
  
As the thing made another dive for them, Alex grabbed Phi around her waist and hurled her next to the front door while Tom dug in his jacket pocket desperately for his keys, "Here they are!"  
  
He ran up beside them and threw open the door. Phi and Alex tumbled into the house and Tom whipped around and slammed the door closed, gasping for breath. Then he scrambled to his feet and quickly drew the front window's blinds shut so the thing couldn't see inside, then sprinted into the kitchen to make sure the back door was locked. Phi stayed where she was, frozen with shock and gazing dumbfounded at the front door while Alex propped himself up on his elbows, unable to move because Phi was sitting across his middle.  
  
Alex turned to Tom as he came back into the room, "I think...we have their attention Tom..."  
  
The other boy nodded and they were silent for a couple moments. Tom flopped down on the living room couch, "Now all we have to decide is what to do about it..."  
  
Phi spoke up and said in a cracked voice, "We need to get that thing back into Tortall..."  
  
Tom nodded in agreement, "Well, the only way I know how to do that is with Numair's help..."  
  
Alex winced as Phi got up, "That might be hard to come by around these parts Tom...have an idea about how to get it?"  
  
Tom stood up again and bounded up the stairs and into his room, "Maybe!"  
  
Phi cracked opened the blinds on the windows and flinched as the horse thing slammed its head against the glass, "Well, there is one good thing about all of this..."  
  
Alex grinned and looked up at her, "What's that?"  
  
"Our parents aren't home..."  
  
***Several Hours Later...***  
  
Tom jogged back down the stairs with a smile on his face and his necklace in his right hand. Alex stuck his head out of the kitchen and swallowed the last bits of the sandwich he had been eating and walked into the living room to join Phi.  
  
Tom looked at both of them with a gleam in his eye. Alex grinned, "Does this mean you know how to communicate with Numair?"  
  
"I can't believe I didn't realize it before!"  
  
Phi interrupted, her patience melting quickly away, "Realize what?!"  
  
"That we have been wearing the answer to our problem for the past three years!" he held up his necklace and Phi took out hers and stared at it disbelievingly, "You see, although I wasn't able to use my magic after I returned to our own dimension, these should still contain some because the magic is infused with the metal itself and it's powers are still able to work!"  
  
Phi looked at him blankly, "Um...that's nice to know, but it won't help us talk to Numair any sooner..."  
  
"Oh, but it will!" Tom walked over and sat down on the couch in between Phi and Alex, "I can use the magic that is inside the pendant to contact a person from Tortall, and that person being Numair, we will be able to send that immortal back to where it came from so that it won't totally destroy our world!"  
  
Alex held up his hand, "Wait a minute...I thought you said that you didn't have any magic left?"  
  
"I don't, but I still have the ability to use magic. I suppose I've really had it all my life. I just never realized it before because magic cannot be created in our dimension."  
  
Alex shook his head, "Strange..." Phi nodded as Tom jumped back up.  
  
"All we have left to do now is try out my theory!"  
  
"You mean you haven't tried to do it yet?!"  
  
"Of course not..." Tom held the necklace in his right hand and sighed deeply, "Here goes nothing..."  
  
A/N: *gasp* will Tom's roughly thought out plan actually work?!? I have no idea, I guess you will just have to keep reading!!! (Actually...I do know, but I'm not telling you 'till next time!!) 


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I'm still not getting too many reviews...hmm, maybe not so many people are reading my story now, maybe because it is a sequel...oh well. Has anyone else noticed that there are a lot of people getting sucked into Tortall stories out there now?  
  
***In Tortall***  
  
The Midwinter festival had just ended and everyone in the Palace was sitting around lazily relaxing. Of course, they deserved the break. It had been hell trying to make up a peace treaty with the Scanrans and several more small wars had taken place in the process. King Jonathan had called it aggressive negotiation...ya right.  
  
The king, Alanna, Raoul, George, Numair, Sir Myles, and Dom were sitting around a large, circular, wooden table, taking a short break before the Scanran "diplomats" arrived tomorrow and were discussing what they should do when the time came. Jonathan was sure that an agreement could and would be made, but the rest of them, especially Alanna, weren't so optimistic. George was visiting from Pirates Swoop and had decided to be present during the talk to back up his wife and to keep her calm, and was having a light conversation with Raoul about the punishment of pick- pocketing when something very odd happened.  
  
Numair went still and his jaw dropped slightly. A voice had just appeared in his head, "Numair...Numair, can you hear me?" Dom, who was seated in between him and Raoul, stopped eavesdropping on Raoul and George's conversation and stared at the mage who had begun to look around wildly for the voice he was hearing.  
  
Numair turned and looked at Dom as the voice subsided, "Did you hear that?"  
  
The knight continued to stare strangely, "Hear what?"  
  
"That voice?"  
  
"Uh..." Dom's gaze shifted around nervously, "Noooo...Numair, are you feeling all right? Because you could always go back to your room if you're tired..."  
  
"No no, I'm fine...what was that noise?" The mage shook his head and returned his gaze back to the paper he was looking at.  
  
Then the voice appeared again, "Damn it Numair answer me!!"  
  
Numair fell backwards out of his chair and thought, "Who are you?! What are you doing in my mind?!?" Everyone in the room turned to stare at him. George was smirking but everyone else seemed quite concerned.  
  
Dom got up, lifted the mage's chair back up, and helped Nuamir to his feet, "Hey, what's wrong?"  
  
"Shhh!! I can't hear the voice!!" The mage put his hands over his ears and focused hard on the noise, which was beginning to sound familiar.  
  
"Finally!" Yes, he had defiantly heard that voice before, but who... "Numair, it's Tom..."  
  
Numair's hands dropped and he said out loud, "Tom!?" He received more strange looks. He began to think in his head again, "Tom? What on the world...? How could you possibly...?"  
  
He heard Tom sigh in exasperation, "I'll tell you all about it later, but right now, we need you to do something for us..."  
  
"What is it? Are you in trouble?"  
  
"Well, yes, sort of. We need you to open up the transdimensional portal again..."  
  
"What?! Why? Certainly you are not thinking of coming back here?!"  
  
"No! Not us!! There is an immortal in our world!"  
  
Numair went silent. his brain seemed to momentarily shut down. To the rest of the people in the room it looked as if he had fallen asleep upright with his eyes open. Dom prodded him gently, "Um, Numair...?"  
  
The mage let out a cry of disbelief causing Dom to fall back in surprise and land in Raoul's lap, "Oh gods!!"  
  
Alanna stood up followed quickly by Jon, "What in Mithros's name is the matter Numair?!"  
  
The mage jogged towards the large wooden double doors in the front of the room, "Tom...immortals...open portal..."  
  
Alanna gave Jon a very confused look and everyone else in the room quickly followed the mage out of the room.  
  
Numair bounded down the stairs of the entrance hall. If Tom was telling the truth, if it really was Tom..., and an immortal had somehow appeared in their world, the results could be disastrous! The voice popped back into his head, "Well of course I'm Tom, Numair! Who else would I be?"  
  
Numair let out a breath of air in surprise. He had forgotten that Tom was still inside his head, "Sorry Tom. Now, you will have to bring the Immortal to the place where the portal opened up in your world three years ago..."  
  
"You mean San Francisco?!"  
  
"If that is where it opened up before, than yes, I suppose I do..."  
  
When Tom answered back it seemed slower and a little shaky, "Can't...can't you open the portal up somewhere closer to our house, that isn't half an hour away?!"  
  
"I'm sorry, but that would be impossible. I need to open it in the exact same spot or else I would risk opening it in some public place. Just think if I opened it up in the middle of a market! Anyone would be able to cross through!"  
  
"Ya, I suppose the last thing we need is a door to Tortall opening right in the middle of a mall during After-Christmas sales..."  
  
Numair ignored the last bit of what Tom said and rushed into the courtyard and Tom began to speak again, "Okay, listen, we are going to need about forty-five minutes to get to the place we were before..."  
  
Numair nodded even though Tom wouldn't be able to see him, "That's perfect. It will take me a while to set up the spell anyway...You must be careful, do not let to many people from your world see the immortal!"  
  
Tom made a noise of understanding and disappeared from Numair's head.  
  
George was the first one to catch up with the mage and walked up to him curiously to watch Numair mutter things under his breath and draw out markings of the freshly fallen snow, his breath coming out in puffs of vapor and dissolving into the air.  
  
The ex-thief leaned against a tree, "So, Nuamir. What'cha doing?"  
  
Numair looked up from what he was doing distractedly, "Somehow an immortal has entered into another dimension and seems to be going after Tom and his friends, probably because of their relationship with our own dimension..."  
  
George looked confused, "Wait? An immortal is going after who now?"  
  
"Tom..." Alanna appeared behind her husband followed shortly by the rest of the group. Sir Myles was last and rested against another tree gasping for breath.  
  
George turned to her as Numair went back to muttering, "Who's that?"  
  
Alanna grinned, "Oh, I forgot! You weren't in the Palace at the time were you?"  
  
"At what time!?"  
  
"When the three children from the other dimension came into ours. Remember? I told you about it when I got back home..."  
  
Recognition filled George's face and he turned back to watch Numair, "Ohhh...ya, okay."  
  
Jon rolled his eyes and turned back to the Palace, "Let's say we all head back to the Palace and finish our planning like we were supposed to be doing in the first place." He turned to Numair, "By the way, what are you doing?"  
  
Numair glanced up, "Opening up the portal..."  
  
"What?!" Jon whipped around and stared at the mage who was trying to avoid his gaze, "Why in the world would you want to do a thing like that? Don't you remember what happened last time they came?!"  
  
"Yes, but it's different this time..."  
  
"How?"  
  
Numair hesitated for a moment before saying, "They don't want to come back...they want to send an immortal back..."  
  
A look of shock passed over the king's face that was quickly replaced with a look of curiousness, "But how could an immortal get into their world?"  
  
"I don't know...but I suppose that we will soon find out..."  
  
The king sighed, "Great...one more thing to deal with..." He looked wearily around the group, "Well, come on then...we best start working again...Numair, you can stay here and let some guards know when you are going to open the portal...I don't want a dragon or anything like that hurtling through that thing and destroying the Palace..."  
  
He walked back inside, followed closely by Alanna, Raoul, George, and Sir Myles but Dom lingered behind for a few minutes, and after the rest of them were out of earshot, turned to Numair, "Do you think they are doing okay?"  
  
"I'm sure if anything horrible had happened, Tom would have said so..."  
  
Dom nodded and strolled back into the Palace with a strange, anxious look on his face. It would really be nice to talk to Tom, Phi, and Alex again and see how they were doing. He shook his head as he re-entered the negotiation room. It was too bad that Kel was off on some mission instead of back home. She would have wanted to say hello.  
  
***Tom, Phi, and Alex's World***  
  
Tom snapped out of his trance and looked at Phi and Alex who were staring at him expectantly. Phi piped up, "Well?"  
  
Tom sighed and walked over to the front door, picking up his coat on the way there, "Well we're going to San Francisco..."  
  
Alex kept staring, "Tom...we would never be able to get there with that...thing trying to get us! You hear that?" there was a loud bang on the window, "It hasn't gone away!"  
  
"I know. That is the whole point. We are going to lure it into the portal and send it back to Tortall where it belongs. Come one, grab your jackets...we have to get going. We have..." he checked his watch, "forty- four minutes to get there..."  
  
Phi leapt up and bounded up the stairs. A moment later she stuck her head out of her bedroom, "How are we gonna get there?"  
  
Tom stopped putting his jacket on. He had forgotten that their parents were gone and had taken their car. They could use Alex's car but it was parked in his garage and they wouldn't have enough time to get it with the immortal dive-bombing them. "How many people can fit on your motorcycle Phi?"  
  
"Um...two. I suppose three could squeeze onto it but it wouldn't be at all comfortable..."  
  
"Good enough!"  
  
Phi disappeared back into her room and came down a minute later with boots on and she had changed from her black jacket to the brown leather one she used on her motorcycle. She grabbed her helmet on the side table and waited impatiently as Tom scribbled down a quick note to their parents in case they came home and Phi and Tom weren't there.  
  
The three gathered by the door and Phi stared out the peephole to see if there were any signs of the horse thing standing right in their way, "Okay, my bike is on the side of the house..."  
  
Tom nodded, "On the count of three then...one...two..."he unlocked the door, "...three!..."  
  
They burst out of the house and scrambled to the side yard. Phi jumped in front, followed by Alex then Tom. Alex wrapped his arms tightly around Phi's middle and tried to make room for Tom who was seated on the very edge.  
  
The creature screeched and flew up in the air. Phi knocked out the kickstand, gunned the motor, and flipped down the visor on her helmet, "Hang on!"  
  
She peeled out of the driveway and roared down the middle of the street, trying to get the motorcycle to go faster as the immortal swooped down upon them. Phi swerved out of the way just in time and drove faster down the street and turned out of the neighborhood and onto the highway.  
  
Alex cried out as she dodged cars and swerved through the quickly moving traffic, trying to avoid their pursuer without getting killed.  
  
People honked their horns and swore out the window as the three shot by, then screamed as the horse thing dove after them, beating the air with it's wings so hard that it caused gusts of wind to push cars off the road and into the ditches that lined the freeway.  
  
Tom nervously checked his watch as he clung onto Alex for dear life and shouted, "We have thirty-one minutes left!"  
  
Phi swore as she dodged a truck and after ten more hectic minutes, reached the San Francisco Bay. As they grew closer, the horse thing seemed to pick up speed and by the time they were over the Golden Gate Bridge, the immortal was going about seventy-five miles per hour.  
  
Phi desperately gunned the engine again and broke eighty miles per hour as the passed over the middle of the bridge and broke eighty-five as they swerved off the main road onto an off-ramp.  
  
She had managed to squeeze right through the tollbooths but the horse just went right through it as if it were made of paper, it's red eyes glowing and teeth shining eerily in the mid-morning light.  
  
By the time they made it to Golden Gate Park, they had five minutes left and hurdled down the street into the parking lot. Phi slammed on the breaks and stopped for a moment, trying to remember which way to go.  
  
Tom called out, "Go left! Left!"  
  
She started the motor up again and drove straight into the forest, narrowly missing being torn to shreds by the horse. Tom glanced at his watch and gasped. They had exactly thirty seconds left until Numair opened the portal! He began to count down out loud, "...ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one!"  
  
A bright light erupted from the middle of nowhere and the air seemed to split into. A rift in space ripped open and the three screamed as they hurdled, for the third time through the transdimensional portal, and into Tortall.  
  
A/N: OK, they're finally in Tortall...yay! Come on people! Please, if you read this, review! I don't care if you even write anything, I just want to know how many of you are actually reading my story, because if no one is, there is really no point in me continuing to write more... 


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thank you Mandas for reviewing. Now that I know that at least ONE person is reading, I won't stop writing, even if you are the only one who is actually reading my story...  
  
As they flew through the air on the motorcycle, Tom was the first one to fall off. He landed flat on his back on a pile of freshly fallen snow. Alex landed second and fell into a snow bank and sunk in about two feet. Phi was unluckier however and was thrown over the top of the bike and did a face plant right into a snow drift, her bike landing several feet away, its tires still spinning madly in the air.  
  
Numair scrambled through the snow to pull Tom up, who was the closest to him, but then they were both thrown back down as something else came hurdling through the portal and slammed into a tree on the far side of the courtyard. Numair motioned quickly to several people whom Tom just noticed for the first time and they quickly surrounding the animal and leveled their spears at its chest. The horse creature screeched again then took off into the air leaving a trail of snow dust behind it.  
  
Numair stood up, brushed off his robes, and for the second time helped Tom up onto his feet, who in turn pulled Alex out of the snow bank. Phi managed to get her head out of the pile of snow that she had been embedded into, but her helmet was dented a little on the top. She rubbed the spot and stood up shakily and with Tom and Alex there to steady her walked back over to the mage who was grinning, "It is very good to see all of you again..." He turned to Phi who still had her helmet on with her visor down, "At least, I assume that is you Phiona under that, um...hat?"  
  
She pulled off the riding helmet with some effort and smiled, "Yup, and it is sorta actually good to be back..."  
  
Numair grin widened and he turned to Tom, "You must show me how you were able to communicate with me! I had no idea that such a thing were possible and I am very interested in learning how you were able to manage such a thing in your dimension..."  
  
Tom nodded, "Don't worry. But what I want to know right now is why that...thing was after us, in OWR dimension."  
  
"Yes it is all very odd..."  
  
"Do you mind if we stay with you until you figure it out? I would much rather get things sorted out here rather than go back and be attacked by something even worse than that in the near future..."  
  
Numair's grin faded, "I would say yes, but you know that that is not a decision that I would be able to make. You'll have to ask the king about staying, but I'm sure you are all welcome."  
  
The three smiled gratefully and Numair led them into the Palace. Alex relaxed at once when they entered the building and felt a familiar sensation wash over him, as if he was retuning to his second home. The mage walked up the main stairs and stopped in front of a large set of double doors that none of the three had ever been in before. He motioned for them to be quiet and opened the door.  
  
Jon looked up, slightly annoyed. This was the third time he had been interrupted today. The first was when George fell asleep in his chair and had begun to snore, the second was when Numair had voices talking in his head, and now this. He threw the papers he was going over onto his desk and frowned at Numair as he appeared in the doorframe, "What is it Numair?"  
  
"Well, sir, I just wanted to inform you that I opened the portal and we got the immortal successfully through...but, we also managed to get some old friends along with it..."  
  
Dom snapped out of his daydream. This could still prove to be an interesting meeting. He was almost glad that Raoul had forced him to come along with him as punishment for the last prank he pulled. The king sighed, "If you are talking about the three children that we looked after last time..."  
  
Numair smiled, "Yes I am sir, but I wouldn't necessarily call them children anymore. Anyway, they were asking me if they could stay for a few days, just until we sort their whole immortal problem out so they could go back to their own world without worrying about further attacks."  
  
Jonathan rubbed his forehead, "Of course they can...Numair, would you see that rooms are set up for them?"  
  
The mage nodded happily, closed the door, and turned to Phi, Tom, and Alex, "Well that was easier than I thought. He must really be tired..." Tom smiled and Numair continued to speak, "I'll go see about getting you three a couple of rooms and meanwhile, why don't the three of you wander around a little. I would offer to show you around, but I already did that and not much has changed, here at the Palace anyway, since you were last here..."  
  
Phi nodded anxiously and the waved good-bye to Numair as he turned a corner that they knew led to the servant's wing, probably to see what rooms were open. Alex turned to her after the mage was out of sight, "What are you so excited about?"  
  
"Oh, there's just someone that I wanted to see again..." Alex's eyebrows rose and Tom grinned. For a moment she looked surprised at their expressions then scowled, "Oh it's not like that! I just wanted to see Devic again!"  
  
Alex smiled and Tom laughed as she stalked off back downstairs towards the courtyard again.  
  
***Devic's View***  
  
Devic sighed in frustration. HaMich, who was surprisingly able to keep his job after what happened three years ago, was making him muck the stables...on their vacation! The boy sighed and stuck his spade into the muck. He was thirteen years old now, taller than he was before, but still lanky. His light brown hair fell into his eyes as he sat down on an upturned bucket, thinking once again of what he had done to deserve such a punishment. He himself didn't think that accidentally punching someone in the face was a crime during wrestling practice...as long as it was Myrcus he was hitting. Mycrus had provoked him though, so this was a little harsh...he only got a black eye after all.  
  
A smirk lit Devic's face as he yanked off his disgusting boots and threw them into a corner, his hands sore from shoveling so much horse crap. The look on Mycrus's face was still worth two weeks of hard labor...he was such an idiot. Ever since he insulted Phiona back in their first year, Devic and he had been sort of rivals...not in everything of course, just when they were wrestling, jousting, or running.  
  
He leaned back against the wall and listened thoughtfully to the horses prancing nervously in their stalls. What a year it had been. He ran his fingers through his hair, remembering too late what he had just been doing with them, swore and tried to brush the dirt off his head. He froze when he heard a snicker and slowly turned around to see who it was. He was not in the mood...  
  
His heart leapt up into his throat. It was Phi! He ran over to her in the doorway and gave her a huge hug, "Oh gods! Is it really you?!"  
  
Phi laughed as he let go of her, blushing slightly, "Of course it is! Who else would be down here looking for you at this time of day?"  
  
He grinned, "When did you...? How...?"  
  
"We had some trouble back at our place so...we came here for help."  
  
He sat down again and pulled up a bucket for her, which she accepted, "Why in the world would you need to come here for anything? I mean, I'm glad to see you of course, but..."  
  
"Someone sent an immortal back into our dimension and we needed to get it back to its own world. Once again though, we managed to accidentally get sucked through and now we've decided to stay until things are straightened out..."  
  
"You mean Tom and Alex are here too?!" Just at that moment, the two came into the stables as if they had been waiting for their cue and Devic stood up again and bowed deeply to the both of them.  
  
Alex blushed and pulled him up out of his bow, "No need for that kid...so, how goes things in Tortall?"  
  
Devic scrambled through the stables to retrieve two more buckets before answering, "Um...fair. It has been pretty quiet around the capitol anyway, and my training is coming along fine..."  
  
Phi's smile widened, "If it is coming along fine, then why are you down here with a shovel all by yourself?"  
  
"Oh...well..." Devic scratched the back of his head nervously, "It's my punishment for getting into a fight during wrestling practice..."  
  
Tom sighed, "See what you did Phi? You were a bad influence on him and now he's taking after you..."  
  
Devic looked from Tom to Phi, a curious look appearing on his face, "What? What did you do?"  
  
Alex chuckled and leaned back against the wall, "The question is more like, 'What hasn't she done?'"  
  
Phi through him a glare, "The most recent detention I got was for, actually, more or less for the same thing you are being punished for..."  
  
Devic gawked at her, "You fight in your world?!"  
  
Alex spoke up again before Phi could, "Of course she does! Before I left high school anyway, we would end up in a fight almost weekly!"  
  
"And then I had to bail them out of it..." Tom grinned as he received glares from both Phi and Alex.  
  
"So, how long will you all be staying with us?"  
  
Tom's face grew thoughtful, "Not long. Well, actually I have no idea. We are going to stay until we are sure that nothing else comes back through to our world trying to kill us..."  
  
"The immortal tried to kill you?" Devic's eyes grew darker.  
  
Phi sighed, "Yep...but we got away. Unfortunately, so did it..."  
  
"What was it that was trying to get you?"  
  
Tom spoke up again, "I'm not sure. I remember seeing it in one of the books in the Palace library before but I can't remember its name. It sort of looked like a horse..."  
  
Devic looked blankly at the wall opposite from him, "Unfortunately, that could be a lot of things around here..."  
  
The large bell wrung from the clock tower. Devic jumped up in surprise, "Is that really the time?! Well, I have to go now, but I'll see you all at supper okay?"  
  
They nodded as he waved back to them and bounded up the stairs into the main building. Phi turned to Tom and Alex, "Well he looks like he is doing pretty well..."  
  
Tom smiled, still looking thoughtful, "Ya...So, what do you guys want to do until, um...supper?"  
  
Phi shrugged but stood up and Alex said, "I don't know anything that we could do...last time, we would train with the pages and you would go look up stuff in the library, but since they seem to be on winter break and we don't have anything to look up at the moment...I would say we're free to do whatever we want..."  
  
Phi's face lit up and she jogged outside with a grin on her face, "I know what can keep us busy..."  
  
Alex and Tom glanced at each other, shrugged, and followed Phi out of the room, completely unsuspecting. A snowball caught Alex straight in the shoulder and he lost his balance and crashed into Tom, who hit the ground with a thud. Alex scrambled back to his feet, trying to catch a glimpse of his attacker, even though he had a pretty good idea of who it was, and threw himself back on the ground as another snowball whizzed by, missing his head by inches.  
  
He laughed and began to pack snow into a ball with his hands while crouching over to block Phi's view of what he was doing. When he heard light, cautious, footsteps approaching from behind him, he whirled around and hurled his snowball at Phi, who let out a small scream of surprise and caught the snow straight in her stomach.  
  
She tossed the snowball she was carrying behind her and Alex grinned as some one, undoubtedly Tom threw a snowball the size of a softball at Phi and covered her in ice. She ran quickly out into the riding field, trying to avoid the on coming attacks, "No fair! It can't be two against one!!"  
  
Alex stopped running and turned apologetically to Tom, "She's right you know..." he sent a ball flying that landed on Tom's chest and bounded of to a nearby drift to collect more ammo.  
  
After two hours, the three returned into the entrance hall of the Palace, gasping for breath, covered in snow, and receiving many strange looks from passers-by. Phi tried unsuccessfully to brush off some of the ice that was clinging to her pants but gave up and the three hulled themselves up the main flight of stairs . Tom stopped at the top and turned to the others, "I guess we should go find Numair and ask him where our rooms are..."  
  
Alex and Phi nodded and they plodded down the hall to their left, looking for Numair's study. Finally, Tom stopped at a heavy wooden door and knocked.  
  
The door cracked open and Daine appeared in the doorframe grinning widely, "Well I see you three have had a fun time outside. Numair needed to go back to the meeting the king was holding, but he warned me that you might come looking for him. He said that the servants have prepared the rooms that you used the last time you were here...It is really good to see you all again..."  
  
The three smiled and Tom thanked her politely, then turned back to Alex and Phi, "What do you say we go and clean up a little before we are seen in public again?"  
  
"Sounds good!"  
  
They went into their rooms that were arranged exactly as they had left them and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to melt the snow of their clothes and trying to find a good outfit to wear.  
  
***  
  
After a very hectic dinner in which people were constantly coming over to Tom, Alex, Phi, and Devic who had joined up with them wanting to know what was going on and who they were, the three returned to their rooms.  
  
Tom flopped down onto his bed and began to flip through a book that he had picked up from the library on immortal beasts on their way back and Alex sat down on his bed and stared at the wall. Phi closed her door and changed quickly into her night clothes, otherwise known as a pair of shorts and a baggy long-sleeve shirt. She had had a difficult time finding anything that would be comfortable for sleeping in and was firmly against wearing the frilly nightgown that the servants had put in her closet.  
  
Phi tried to fall asleep but even though her body was tired, her mind was wide-awake so she went to stand by the window instead. The sun was setting and it gave off a beautiful orange glow on the snow-covered hills. She sighed happily and watched the sun sink lower behind the horizon. What were they going to tell their parents this time if they stayed longer than was planned. That they were mysteriously kidnapped again? No, the police probably wouldn't go for that for a second time without better evidence...  
  
Someone knocked on her door and she got up and cracked her door open just enough to see who it was. She wasn't thrilled about having Numair catch her in a pair of shorts. From what she had learned the last time they came here during the summer, they were basically considered undergarments, and she was sure that he would be very embarrassed. But it was thankfully only Alex. She let him in with a sigh and turned to him after closing the door, "What?"  
  
"Oh, I was just bored to death and wanted something to do...Tom is reading and well, you know how he gets when he is concentrating..."  
  
She grinned, "Ya...what were you doing before you came in here then?"  
  
"Staring at the wall...you?"  
  
"Looking out the window...I personally found it to be more interesting than the wall...It's more beautiful..."  
  
"Ya, it is..." She turned back to look at him and found his eyes resting on her. He smiled and pulled her closer to him, letting his hands slip to the small of her back. She grinned, put her arms around his neck and kissed him.  
  
Meanwhile in the next room...Tom put his book down on his lap. It had gotten awfully quiet in the next room. He listened harder, his mind buzzing. Should he go over there and find out what they were doing? No, he trusted Alex with Phi's life so he shouldn't be worrying. But what if...? No...Damn my older brother instincts...he opened his book back up and tried to focus on it instead of the pressing silence but found in nearly impossible. He was about to get up and investigate when the door to his room opened and Alex stepped back inside. He blushed at the look Tom gave him and sat down on his bed, taking his shoes off.  
  
Tom sighed and shook his head, put his book back down, and blew out the candle. He heard Alex get into his bed and the next thing he knew he was drifting off to sleep. 


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thank you every one else who has reviewed since I posted the last chapter! I appreciate it very much, and since I do have an audience, I WILL continue to write. Sorry to scare you all like that, but sometimes drastic measures are needed to ensure results!  
  
Tom slowly opened his eyes and stood up, ready to pick up his book again and keep reading. But he wasn't awake, he was still dreaming. He looked around. He was in an open room filled with three comfortable looking chairs, but no one else was around. He stood up and walked shakily to a door on the far end of the room. Slowly, he reached out for the handle but as his fingers touched the doorknob a piercing scream shot through the air.  
  
Tom sat bolt upright, covered in cold sweat. Alex was sitting next to him, looking very concerned, "Hey, are you alright Tom?" As he made a move to get out of bed, Alex pushed him firmly back down, "No way buddy, before you go anywhere, I'm gonna have to ask you to calm down first..."  
  
The door to their room burst open and Phi came rushing inside looking very disheveled, "What the? What happened?" She rushed over to her brother and sat down on the side of his bed, "What happened to him Alex?"  
  
"I dunno...I was asleep and the next thing I knew, Tom screamed."  
  
Phi turned to Tom who looked as if he was completely zoned out, still gasping for breath from his dream, "What's the matter?"  
  
"I...I had a...a vision...again...I think..." Tom rolled over and hurled over the edge of his bed. Alex sprang up with a slightly disgusted look on his face and moved to the side that Phi was on, the clean side, "I suppose...I should have expected this now that we're back...my gift was probably just kicking back in..."  
  
Phi grinned weakly, "So this is what happens when you have your little vision thingys...I don't think I have ever seen you have one before..."  
  
Alex looked back at Tom and muttered, "Ya, me neither...I'm going to go get someone Tom, you don't look good." And he was telling the truth. Tom's face was taunt and pale and his skin looked clammy.  
  
Tom raised his hand, motioning for Alex to stop, "No. I'll be fine in a few minutes..." Alex cast Phi an unbelieving glance, but stepped away from the door and walked slowly back to sit down on his own bed. Tom smiled at Phi, "Sorry that I woke you up. You can go back to your room now, I promise I'll be fine..."  
  
"No way!" She shook her head violently, "I'm not leaving this room until you stop looking like a zombie." To prove her point, she grabbed a chair that was sitting by a writing desk and pulled it over next to Tom's bed.  
  
"Fine. But I can assure you nothing else will happen tonight..."  
  
"Ya well, I'll take my chances..." She settled into the chair and rested her elbows on his bed.  
  
Alex yawned and kept himself from falling back to bed by propping himself up with his elbows and Phi's eyelids began to droop. Tom fell back asleep first, followed closely by Phi, and Alex was overcome finally by exhaustion just as the sky began to lighten.  
  
***  
  
Phi sat up and rubbed her eyes. Tom and Alex had disappeared and she was currently sitting with one arm draping over the middle of the bed, the other dangling off the edge and her head on a small pillow. She grinned and tossed it aside. She didn't need a pillow, but it was nice of someone to think of her. She yawned and stalked into her own room to get dressed, blinking nonstop the entire way, trying to take the edge of the mid morning sunny glare that was coming from the window.  
  
She shoved on some clothes, then headed downstairs and found her brother and Alex sitting in two overstuffed chairs in the main library. She smiled a little as they waved her over and sat down on a table that was covered mainly in a stack of heavy books that all had something or another to do with immortals. Phi turned to Tom, "So, have you figured out which immortal is ours?"  
  
"I think I have. It's called a hurrock (A/N: Please, don't mind the spelling...I'm half asleep right now so go easy on the grammar criticism...). "  
  
"Which would be...?"  
  
Alex flipped open the first book on top of the stack and began to read, "A hurrock is, and I quote, 'a winged horse, usually black, with bat-like wings and very sharp and dangerous teeth and talons' god this print is hard to read..."  
  
"That's because you're brain isn't used to reading Tortallian yet Alex..." Tom took the book and finished reading, "'These beasts usually prefer a steady course of raw meat in their diet; preferably man flesh, and have been known to carry certain riders on their backs if bribed beforehand...' Did the hurrock we saw have a rider?"  
  
Phi shrugged, "I dunno, but that whole thing about it eating human flesh is a little disturbing..."  
  
Alex turned to Tom, "Now that you mention it, there might have possibly been someone on it's back...maybe."  
  
Phi sighed in exasperation, "No one noticed if the horse from hell had a rider?!"  
  
"I don't hear you saying that you looked..."  
  
"I was driving!! You were the one who was supposed to be watching the horse!"  
  
"Well I was a little preoccupied with its teeth and talons to worry about some freak on its back!"  
  
Tom whacked Phi and Alex on the head, "Shhhhh! We're in a library!!" They glared at him, then at each other, then at the ground, "I think some of us have been hanging out together for a little too much time for one week..."  
  
Alex rolled his eyes and stood up. Phi glared at him, "Where are you going?"  
  
"I'm gonna go...take a walk..." He left the room grumbling the entire way out.  
  
Phi turned to Tom and put her head in her hands, "...Men..." Tom gave her a funny look and she quickly blushed, "Sorry...forgot who I was talking to for a minute..."  
  
"No problem..."  
  
Phi took a book from the middle of the stack and began to flip through it aimlessly. Tom read more about hurrocks, but then his eyes drifted away from the page and onto some girls sitting in the corner. He blushed when he found Phi's gaze on him and quickly returned to his book. She grinned and put down her book, "When's the last time you went out on a date Tom?"  
  
"I don't really want to talk about it..."  
  
"Why?" She had switched to English and was speaking in a lowered voice, "Because I'm a girl?"  
  
"No! Because you're my little sister!" He returned to his book but after a minute of having her staring at him grinning, he threw it down onto the table, "If you must know, I went out on many dates in the past year at college..."  
  
"And you never told me about them in your e-mails?"  
  
"None of them lasted long enough for me to have anything to tell..."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because..."  
  
Phi shrugged, stood up and stretched, "Okay, okay, I'll leave you alone...I'm going to go down to the stables..."  
  
Tom nodded and picked up his book again, ignoring the strange glances he was getting from other people in the room because they had spoken English so loudly.  
  
Phi jogged down the stairs and out to the empty, snow covered field that was in front of the stables and the armory. She paused for a moment, something on the edge of the grounds catching her eye. She shook it off, gathered her overcoat tighter around her neck and headed for the main stables. When she made it inside, she stomped the excess snow off her shoes and turned to see Devic shoveling muck from an empty horse stall. He glanced up when she came in, but then went back to his work after waving, "What brings you down here?"  
  
"Boredom..."  
  
He grinned and wiped sweat off of his brow, "I would love to be able to say the same. Oh, in an hour or so, some Scanran diplomats are supposed to be coming to the Palace to discuss peace terms with the king and his advisors. That will be something interesting..."  
  
"You mean you guys are still at war?"  
  
"Yes...I also heard that Esmond is escorting them here along with Owen and Lord Wyldon, his old training master, and I'm sure they wouldn't mind seeing you again..."  
  
Phi leaned against a post and watched him a little while before saying, "Do you need any help?"  
  
"What? Oh, no, um...I'm fine. This is hardly a job for someone like yourself to be doing anyway..."  
  
"Oh, and what does that mean?"  
  
He winced at her tone of voice and knew that he had said something wrong, "Well, what I mean is, you shouldn't be doing this because of your status..."  
  
She grinned at his nervous answer, "It's fine..."  
  
Devic smiled a little, glad that she had not gotten upset about who knows what and began to work again, "Besides, this is a punishment for me, remember? If anyone caught you helping me, I would get a week more of stable mucking..."  
  
Phi sighed and walked outside again, "I suppose I'll see you tonight then..."  
  
He nodded and she walked back towards the front of the palace. Phi wished she knew an easier way around to the library, and there had to be one besides going all the way to the front of the Palace every time she wanted to go somewhere. Oh well. It had begun to snow again, but she could still make out several large figures moving down the cobblestone path to the front courtyard. Phi stopped walking, curious to see who was coming and as they drew nearer she was able to see that Esmond was in the lead followed by two other people heavily cloaked and then by Owen and some old dude who looked like he would love nothing more than to be anywhere else at the moment.  
  
She ran into the entrance hall and waited behind the corner for the party to enter after they handed off their horses to some pages, and watched unnoticed as they climbed up the huge flight of stairs and made their way to the big set of double doors, the one that Numair had stuck his head into when the Phi, Tom, and Alex arrived. She watched them enter the room and after they firmly shut the door, she ran upstairs, her curiosity growing by the second. Those must be the diplomats that Devic had told her about...but they were early.  
  
She couldn't hear much, only a very muffled voices. She scowled. Stupid thick wooden doors. The doors flew open again without warning and she scrambled backwards just in time to avoid being knocked in the head. She hurried to her feet and pressed against the wall, trying to keep from being seen. To her relief, only Esmond and Owen walked out and she stepped into the hallway as they past her, both completely absorbed in their conversation.  
  
Phi grinned and called out, "Hello!"  
  
Esmond froze and Owen jumped. Phi's smile widened as they turned around and stared dumbly at her for a moment. Esmond was the first one to recover, "Phiona? What in Mithros's name are YOU doing here? When did you get here?"  
  
Owen kept staring and said, "How did you get here?"  
  
Phi took a deep breath, "Well...we are here because there was an immortal in our dimension, a hurrock to be exact, so we came here to get rid of it but to get the immortal to come through the portal we had to come through it to, we got here yesterday morning and I suppose I already answered the how part, but Numair opened the portal again after Tom sent him a message using the necklaces that he gave us the last time we were here."  
  
"Oh...um, how long are you planning on staying?"  
  
"Until this whole thing is cleared up..."  
  
"That could take a while..." Owen had finally spoken again, "Wyldon told me that these negotiations will take up most of the court's time for the next week or so and not much else is going to be done in the meantime..."  
  
Esmond nodded, "Oh, I suppose you would be interested too. We ran into Kel on our trip back the capitol and she will be back home in a few days. We already told Dom."  
  
Phi said good-bye to the two knights and walked slowly back to the main library. How long were they willing to stay here? School would be back in in about a week and a half, not to mention that their parents would probably be home in about five days. And what about Alex's parents? Darn. Phi closed her eyes and walked blindly down the next hall.  
  
She had forgotten about Alex until her mind brought it up again. She had been a little hard on him...but he started the argument...or did she? She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she didn't see Tom, who was busy reading, until she ran into him and they both fell to the ground. Tom looked up embarrassed, then looked relieved as he realized it was only his sister, and helped her to her feet, "When you went outside, did you happen to see Alex?"  
  
"I'm fine, thanks for asking...No, I didn't. Why?"  
  
"It's just that..." Tom paused and thought carefully about what he was about to say, knowing that he was on thin ice, "Well, he has been gone for a while now, and he is not exactly the type that likes to take long walks through the garden..."  
  
"I couldn't care less where he is right now..."  
  
Tom grinned, "You don't really mean that, do you?"  
  
"Of course I do..." Damn. A year ago, she would have believed herself, but now...  
  
"Oh come on, I know you like him...I may zone out sometimes, but I'm not stupid..."  
  
She glared at him and stalked off towards her room. Tom shook his head and continued back towards the entrance hall to keep looking for Alex, but this time, he didn't start reading his book again.  
  
When he reached the top of the main entrance hall, he stopped dead in his tracks. There were raised voices coming from the other side of the double doors. What was going on in there? The noise continued to rise, but as suddenly as it begun, it stopped. He shrugged and headed back down the staircase.  
  
A/N: All right! Another chapter done! That was kinda a bad place to finish the chapter, but I needed to stop somewhere... 


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: The story starts off right where the last one ended, just ta let y'all know...  
  
***A few hours later...***  
  
Tom knocked on Phi's bedroom door. She opened it to find a very worried expression on her older brother's face, "I think something happened to Alex, Phi. He should be back by now... It's starting to get dark and dinner will start in half an hour!"  
  
"I'm sure he's fine Tom. Besides, he is twenty one years old! I think he can take care of himself by now...of course, I could be wrong about that." Tom gave her a hard look and she sighed, "Fine, I'll come help look for him..." She grabbed her leather jacket and walked quickly out of her room, trailing just behind Tom. She wouldn't admit it, but she had been beginning to worry too, and was glad for the excuse to go look for Alex. Maybe she would finally remember to pick up her motorcycle too. It had been buried in the snow for two and a half days...hopefully it would still be able to run okay.  
  
As they made their way through the hall, they ran into Devic heading out from the knight's-in-training wing on his way to the Dinning Hall. He stared at their heavy overcoats and said, "Where are you going? It's almost dinner time, and a rumor has been spreading that we will get to hear some news about how the negotiations are progressing from some of the younger knights."  
  
"We're going to go look for Alex..."  
  
"Is he missing? How long has he been gone for?"  
  
"A little more than half a day..."  
  
"Hmm...Is there anything I can do to help?"  
  
Phi looked thoughtful for a moment, obviously not wanting to hurt the boy's feelings, "Well...you could tell us about any news about the Scanrans that they give out tonight."  
  
Devic frowned and nodded, not liking to be kept out of the action but sort of understanding, "Um...okay, see you tonight then..."  
  
Tom and Phi watched him walk down the hall, then set off again and walked out to the front courtyard. Phi jogged over to the spot where they had come through to Tortall and yanked her bike out of a huge snow drift that had piled up on top of it. She wheeled it over to the front building, leaned it up against a wall, then ran off to join Tom again as he peered around the Palace grounds. There was nothing out there besides the two of them.  
  
Tom frowned but determinedly kept walking forward and eventually they left the Palace's walls and began to explore the main street of the city. Phi stopped and looked around uncomfortably, "Tom, do you really think Alex would have come out here by himself? I mean, he knows he doesn't know his way around, doesn't he?"  
  
"I thought so..."  
  
"Then why are we going out here when I know that neither of us knows our way around?"  
  
"Because we're following Alex..."  
  
"But we don't even know that he came out here Tom! How come you are so sure?" She suddenly grew suspicious, "Is there something that you aren't telling me?"  
  
"No...not really." He hated lying to Phi, but would she really believe that he was just going off a hunch? That he just knew for no explainable reason that Alex was somewhere in the city? No...she would think that he was ill again, "Just...just trust me on this okay?"  
  
They continued to walk straight down the middle of the street, jumping out of the way every now and then as a horse trotted past or some merchant yelled at them as he pushed a cart by. It was getting really dark now and the sun had almost set when someone called out, "Hey! Wait a minute? Where do ya think you're goin'?"  
  
Tom and Phi stopped dead in their tracks and turned around. A man walked up from behind them and stared curiously, "What are you two doin' outside of the Palace? Did you get bored like me, or did ya just decide ta get yourself lost?"  
  
Tom sighed with relief. It was George. The man grinned as he saw recognition dawn on Tom's face and slapped him on the back, "Sorry if I gave the two of you a bit of a scare, but I wasn't expecting to see two people such as yourselves wandering around at this time of day. There are some thieves and robbers in this world ya know, people that you wouldn't want to get messed up with..."  
  
Phi glared at him suspiciously as George guided them away from the heart of the city and back towards the Palace, "What are you doing out here then?"  
  
"Well now aren't we curious? I would say that it is none of your business what I am doing out here, but then, you'd probably say the same when I ask you what you are doing out here..."  
  
Tom spoke up while Phi continued to glare, fully aware that he had just changed the subject, "We were looking for Alex, one of us who came to Tortall through the portal..."  
  
George's expression changed, "Well let's just hope that he didn't decide to come out here..."  
  
"I think he did..."  
  
George's eyes darkened and his expression grew thoughtful as they passed through the gates to the Palace walls, "Tell you what...I'll make sure your friend isn't into any trouble and bring him back here, that is, if he is in the city, if you don't tell my wife where I am. She would come out here and kill me if she knew I was ditching the negotiations...I told her I was feeling sick and I escaped through our bedroom window, so I don't think she will be too happy to find out that I am perfectly healthy..."  
  
Tom nodded gratefully and turned to Phi as George walked back towards the city, "That was nice..."  
  
"Ya, but there's something about him that I don't trust..."  
  
"I know what you mean, but I suppose he is one of the 'good guys' so I trust him..."  
  
Phi frowned thoughtfully but didn't say anything more. They headed back up to their rooms to get ready for bed. Tom pointed out on their way up that they had probably missed dinner and neither of them were very hungry so they didn't bother to find out if they were late or not.  
  
They separated when they reached their assigned rooms and with a wave good-night, closed their doors and began to get ready for bed. Only Tom left his door unlocked, just in case...  
  
***That night...***  
  
Tom slowly sat up in bed. Something was going on. His mind was buzzing and drowning out all of his senses. He couldn't see or hear anything except for blurs of light and tiny muffled voices. He felt his feet touch the ground, but he hadn't wanted them to move. What was going on? He felt himself walking towards the door, opening in and slipping out into the hallway. But he didn't want to do any of it! He tried to shake his head to clear it, but his head didn't move. He didn't even blink.  
  
As Tom passed Phi's room, he ordered his hand with his mind to pound on the door or to call out something to wake her up, but nothing happened. He began to panic slightly as the buzzing grew louder. He had completely lost control over his actions! But who, or what, had control?! And where were they taking his body?! He moved silently down the main staircase, like a ghost, and glided through the front door.  
  
Tom prepared himself in his mind for a blast of cold, because he was only wearing pants and a thin t-shirt and walking barefoot out into the snow, but when he left the entrance hall, he felt nothing, as if his body where in some bubble. Or maybe, he wasn't able to feel anything because he just wasn't able to, just like he wasn't able to move his hand. A sharp pain sliced through Tom's head and he cried out in pain...at least the Tom in his mind did. Tom's body continued to walk straight out to the city, just as he had late that afternoon.  
  
***Phi's view***  
  
She was startled awake by strange noises coming from the next room over. She sat up and listened carefully. It sounded like Numair and Alanna. But what were they doing in Tom's bedroom?  
  
Her door was flung open and Alanna appeared in her doorway, looking very distraught, "Good..." The lioness stuck her head around the corner and called into Tom's bedroom, "The girl's still here!"  
  
Phi stared, completely shocked to see Alanna standing in the room in her night clothes. Numair peered around the knight's shoulder, also wearing his nightclothes, "Thank the gods at least one of them is still here..."  
  
Phi finally found her voice, but it sounded tired and dry, "What's the matter? What's goin' on?"  
  
Alanna sighed, "We don't know...Numair said that he felt a magical surge of some sort coming from your brother's room, and woke me up, thinking that something had happened."  
  
Numair finished the story for her, "...But when we got here, Tom was gone, not to mention that Alex wasn't there either and the door was unlocked...Phi, do you know where Tom is?"  
  
Phi shook her head, her mind drawing a blank. Why would Tom go anywhere in the middle of the night? It didn't make any sense, "He...he left his door open so Alex could come back in...we didn't know when he was coming back, so he didn't really have a choice..."  
  
"What happened to Alex?" Numair had a strange, thoughtful expression on his face, as if he already knew the answer to his question but he thought it was polite to ask.  
  
"He...he went on a walk in the morning today...yesterday" it had to be past midnight, "...and hadn't come back by the time we went to bed."  
  
"What time did he leave?"'  
  
"I dunno, about eleven I guess, maybe a little earlier..."  
  
The mage fell silent and disappeared from Phi's sight and Alanna ran a hand through her disheveled red hair, "Well, if you notice anything else, let us know..."  
  
Phi nodded, a feeling of anxiousness beginning to grow in her stomach, "What's going on?"  
  
Alanna sighed and began to close Phi's door again, "We don't know..."  
  
***the next morning***  
  
Phi's eyes sprang open and she sat up so fast she nearly fell out of her bed. Did last night really happen? Was Tom really gone too?! Now that her brain was completely working, she began to panic. Where were Tom and Alex?! How could they have left her all alone like that, with out even saying that they were going to leave?! How long were they going to be gone?  
  
She stumbled out of bed, stuffed some clothes on, pulled her door open, and ran to her brother's room. The door was slightly ajar and when she went inside, a small sliver of light that was coming through the shutters on the windows showed that both beds were...empty. Her brain seemed to shut back down and she stood there, dumbly staring into the room for what seemed like an eternity until her stomach growled and she shook herself awake.  
  
Phi realized that she hadn't eaten a thing for at least twenty hours and walked slowly to the Dining Hall. When she got there, the room was already busy and at least half the tables were taken up already. She got her food, then sat down by herself at a small table in the back, completely ignoring everything around her until Devic came and sit down next to her.  
  
The boy smiled, "Can I sit here?" She nodded and he sat down. He was about to take a bite of his breakfast but then looked up and found Phi staring down at her own meal in deep thought with a pained look on her face, "What is the matter?"  
  
"Tom's gone..."  
  
"What?" he dropped his fork onto his plate, "What do you mean 'gone'?"  
  
"He disappeared last night..."  
  
"Disappeared?"  
  
"No one knows where he is and he has already been gone for hours...not to mention the fact that Alex is still missing from yesterday..."  
  
A concerned look appeared on Devic's face, "Did you tell anyone about this?"  
  
"Numair and Alanna know...Oh, Alanna's husband, George, knows that Alex is gone too. He said that he would look for Alex in the city last night."  
  
"In the city? Why would they be out there?"  
  
"I don't know..." A hardened expression replaced her pained one, "But Tom did..." She looked up at Devic, who was staring at her, his hand still in the air from when he was holding his fork, "Devic, Tom knew that Alex was in the city! He told me that I should trust him, but he wouldn't tell me how he knew..." She quickly devoured the rest of her breakfast and stood up, "And I'm going to find them..."  
  
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Devic took a couple gulps of his own food. "I'm coming with you!"  
  
"No. What if something happens? I need you to stay here to tell people where I went if something goes wrong..."  
  
"But you should have someone with you who knows the city! I'm going with you Phi, and there is nothing you can do to stop me so don't even try!" He stood up to prove his point.  
  
Phi sighed, then smiled dryly, "Fine...you can come..."  
  
He nodded and followed her out of the room and towards the front door, "So, do you have any idea where they could be, or if they're even in the same place?"  
  
Phi's mind froze but her body kept walking straight. What if they weren't in the same place? That hadn't occurred to her before but what if it was true? "They are in the same place." She said it with such determination that Devic didn't ask anymore questions and Phi almost began to believe it herself.  
  
They had walked for about halfway through the front courtyard when someone from the Palace called out for them to stop. Phi slowly turned around and came face to face with a curious looking Esmond, "Where are you going?"  
  
"Out...for a walk..."  
  
He gazed at her suspiciously through narrowed eyes, "Really..."  
  
Phi nodded politely and the knight looked at her for a moment more, and then turned away, "Fine. Lady Alanna told me to let you know that you are not to wander off. I don't know why though, and she wouldn't tell me a thing more..."  
  
The two watched as Esmond went back inside and Devic turned to Phi, "Maybe you should listen to what Alanna has to say. She is usually right about these kinds of things you know..." Phi shrugged and continued to walk through the gates and into the city. Devic sighed and picked up his pace so he wouldn't lose sight of her in the bustling crowds, which was actually very hard to do, considering that Phi didn't seem to be trying to stay with him. A few times, Devic had to actually climb on top of a stack of boxes to look for her. After the third time of doing this, when he reached Phi again, he grabbed her sleeve, "There is no way you are losing me again!"  
  
Phi grinned a little and together they fought their way through the main street, having no clue where they were going.  
  
***Back at the Palace***  
  
Esmond walked quickly through the main hallway of the Palace, his mind drifting over way too many things. First, he began to worry about where Phiona was going, then he realized that a much bigger and more prominent problem was that of the Scanran diplomats and how a resolution still hasn't been drawn up yet and meanwhile people were dying because of all the aftershocks of the old war. His thoughts then turned to Kel, who, like he had said, ran into him on their way to the palace when they passed through a small village, and she said she would be home a few days after they arrived.  
  
Numair came out of the conference room looking exasperated and exhausted, probably because he had stayed up late last night looking for the abnormal flux in the magical flow last night. Esmond nodded to the mage, who stopped briefly, glad to talk with someone who wasn't discussing peace treaties, "You look tired Esmond...Is there anything wrong?"  
  
"No, no...I'm fine. I just have a lot of things to think about right now I suppose..." he motioned with his head at the double wooden doors and Numair rolled his eyes.  
  
"I know how you feel...I could not stand one more moment in that room. I do not know how Jonathan does it..."  
  
Esmond sighed, "Yes...of course there is Kel who is coming home in a few days, and then Phi and Devic decided to take a walk in the city..."  
  
"They what?"  
  
"Oh, I saw them walking out of the front entrance, they said they were taking a walk, and they were headed towards the center of the city. They seemed sort of...tense though."  
  
Numair's face darkened, "This is not good...we need to find them!"  
  
Esmond looked very confused, "...but why?"  
  
Numair shook his head, "There is not enough time for me to explain it to you. Find someone else, and try to locate them...hurry! Their lives could be at stake!"  
  
Esmond snapped into action and sprinted down the hall to find Owen, all other thoughts gone from his head. Numair watched him round the corner, then set off down the opposite way towards his study, his brow furrowed and confused thoughts clouding his mind.  
  
A/N: Wow, that was confusing!! I hope I will be able to make it clearer for all of you, but um, for you who didn't understand my poor description of what is going on: Tom's body was "possessed" and he was taken who knows where along with Alex, Phi is left alone in the Palace and with Devic's help decides to take some drastic and rash measures, Numair is worried about something that he can't yet explain (he knows something is going on, but he doesn't know what, and he isn't happy about the fact that he doesn't know...) 


	8. Chapter 8

***Phi's View***  
  
The day passed quickly by as Phi and Devic explored the city and finally, in the late afternoon, Devic pulled Phi aside, "Look...We have been out here for hours...I think it is time that we head back to the Palace. Someone could be worried about us...and you know how Lady Alanna told us, well, indirectly anyway, that we shouldn't wander off?"  
  
But Phi wasn't paying any attention. She glanced around frantically, "No, we have to find them..."  
  
Devic stared at her, "Are you...okay?"  
  
"...Come on, let's go."  
  
"Wait, you didn't answer my question!"  
  
They dove into the diminishing crowds and Devic tugged on Phi's sleeve, which he was still keeping a firm grip on, "Look! Isn't that Owen? And there is Esmond! I wonder what they are doing out here...?" He began to walk over to the two knights, who were surveying the mob of people intently.  
  
Phi grabbed the boy's shoulder and hulled him back into an alley, "No! They'll take us back..."  
  
"What?" Devic turned from Phi's face to look at Esmond and Devic, "Why would they be looking for us?"  
  
"Because, they're obviously looking for something and we aren't supposed to be out here, so they might not be actually looking for us, but they'd certainly take us back..."  
  
"Oh, fine then." The two watched as the knights walked passed them, then they slipped out of the alley and headed back down another road, "I think we have been down here before..."  
  
"Maybe..."  
  
"This is ridiculous! We do not even know what we are looking for!"  
  
Phi sighed and leaned against a building, "I know, but I can't stop looking for them. What if something terrible has happened?"  
  
"Then we shouldn't be out here alone!"  
  
Phi stood up slowly, a look of total and complete defeat on her face, "You're right...I'm sorry Devic, for dragging you all over the place for nothing...let's...let's go back to the Palace...it's getting close to dinner time..."  
  
***Meanwhile, back at the Palace...***  
  
Numair had been pacing in his study for hours. He let out a huge sigh and fell into a big armchair that was in the corner of the room, next to his fireplace. Daine walked down the stairs, followed closely by Kitten, looking concerned, "You should take a break Numair. All this work at one time isn't good for you..."  
  
"I know! But I need to find out what in Mithros's name that huge flux was so I can determine what happened to both Tom and Alex! I feel so...responsible..."  
  
"Why? I know they are your friends Numair, but you didn't create that huge flux...thing. Anyway, Esmond and Owen haven't reported back yet and it's an hour until supper. I want you to get out of this room for a while too, go take a short walk or something, stretch your legs..." She walked back up the stairs but the dragon stayed behind.  
  
It gave Numair a curious look, "What? I don't suppose you know what is going on around here?" Kitten whistled and rubbed her head up against his robes, "Didn't think so...hmm. I just wished I knew why Tom would get up in the middle of the night and leave like that. He has currently been gone a total of fourteen and a half hours. And then there was Alex, who left about fifteen hours before him because he got mad at Phi and Tom, or something like that, and he took a walk." He sighed and banged his head against the back of the armchair. There had to be something he was missing.  
  
He slowly stood up and began to walk up the stairs, followed by Kitten who didn't like to be left alone. Numair had his hand on the doorknob when a thought hit him, what if Tom left the palace against his will? But surely someone would have noticed if he was kidnapped. He dropped his hand and began to pace again. Maybe, somehow someone had used a sort of magic to kidnap him, and what he felt wasn't Tom's magic at all, like he had previously thought, but someone else's. Perhaps, it was the person who had sent the immortal after them in their world, because that would have required a strong burst of magic too. And what if that same person, or persons, had taken Alex in the same way, when he was on his walk?  
  
What if the person was after Phi! But the two of them were alone while Phi was in the company of Devic, not to mention about a hundred other people. Still, if he was right, he would need to get her back as soon as possible. Esmond and Owen seemed to be having poor luck in finding them though...Numair sighed and opened the door and walked outside into the hallway, being careful to close the door behind him so Kitten wouldn't get out and get lost.  
  
***Back to the city ***  
  
Devic looked at the town's clock tower as they passed it, "Wow! It is already five o' clock! I'm surprised it's still this light outside..."  
  
"The sun is almost setting though..." Phi sighed, "I suppose it's a good thing that we decided to go back..."  
  
They were about three blocks away from the Palace walls, when Phi spotted a familiar face moving quickly towards them. It was George. Phi rushed up to him, forgetting that she ever didn't trust him, "Did you find out where Alex is!"  
  
"No, but listen, strange things are going on around here. I spoke to Alanna about Alex's disappearing act and she told me that Tom had also vanished early this morning. I poked around a little and pulled a couple of strings, and I got some information, but none of it good. It seems that your brother came through those gates in his sleepin' clothes and walked down the main street without even blinkin'. After that, he is said to have turned into an alleyway and disappeared."  
  
The man was gazing intently at Phi, his eyes occasionally shifting to Devic, then back to Phi who narrowed her eyes and seemed to go a shade paler, "Disappeared? But...what do you mean disappeared?"  
  
"That's the problem missy. I know this city better than the back of my hand and my profession has let my gain access to most of the secret passage ways and hideouts here, but I ain't never heard of one being on main street. See, it's a dangerous place for thieves to hang out because there's guards all over it. But I want you to go back to the Palace now, before it gets dark, 'cause if anything's gonna happen to you, it's less likely to happen in broad daylight."  
  
Phi had begun to stare into the distance, looking completely zoned out. George looked at her, then at Devic, "Listen kid, get her back alright...I need to go hunt down Esmond and Owen and tell them to get back to the Palace..."  
  
Devic nodded and tugged on Phi's sleeve. Nothing. He tried again, harder this time, but she wouldn't move, "Phi? Come on, we need to go, now..." She continued to stare. Devic turned around, "George! Something is wrong with her!"  
  
The ex-thief hurried back and snapped his fingers in front of Phi's eyes after examining her thoughtfully. Devic stared at Phi, nervously gazing at her, as if trying to see into her head to know what was happening. George put his finger to her throat, then put his ear against her chest and circled Phi again, "Well, she's breathing...and her hearts still workin'..."  
  
A call rang out from behind them and Esmond and Owen bounded up to them looking tired, "There you two are! We have been looking everywhere for you! Good afternoon George...What is the matter with her?"  
  
George glanced up at them and returned to gaze perplexedly at Phi, "We're not sure...she just went into this thing...maybe someone should fetch us up a doctor..."  
  
***In Phi's head...***  
  
Why had she stopped moving? Phi stood stock-still waiting for her body to move. A pounding headache that had been growing in her head burst and a loud, obnoxious buzzing noise filled her head. Her vision grew fuzzy and she couldn't hear all the background noises of the market anymore. She saw George come up to her and stare, then touch her neck and put his head up against her chest. She wanted to push him away, but she couldn't make her arms move. Phi tried to turn her head and ask Devic what was going on, but nothing happened.  
  
She began to get frightened. She heard Esmond and Owen's voices from far behind her and begged them silently to do something. The buzzing grew louder and pretty soon, she couldn't hear what George was saying even though he was a foot away. Suddenly the buzzing sensation seemed to explode and she let out a scream of pain.  
  
***Back in the real world...***  
  
Devic leapt back and almost fell over. A huge wave of magic had just hit him...but it had come from...Phi. The other stared at him as his eyes grew wide. Owen ran over and helped to steady the boy, "What happened?"  
  
"This magic...thing...from Phi!"  
  
George looked at him, "Right, well wait a second. She doesn't have the Gift, does she?"  
  
Devic nodded but just then Phi moved. She turned around and without saying a word or even changing her blank expression, headed back to the center of the city, away from the Palace. Esmond grabbed her shoulder, "Where are you going?"  
  
But Phi ignored him and kept walking. George jumped in front of her, "You aren't goin' anywhere but back to the Palace. Something's happened and I don't like the looks of it." She walked right into him but he stood his ground. Something strange glowed in her eyes and her hand rose, clenched into a fist. George smiled, "Your gonna hit me? Please...I think I can..." her hand connected with his stomach and he doubled over.  
  
***Back to Phi's mind***  
  
She screamed as George tumbled to the ground. How had she hit him so hard? She cried out an apology to the man as she passed by him and her body turned down a narrow alleyway that she hadn't noticed before. Before she could take a step down it, someone grabbed her arm and her heart sank. No, not Devic. Her body ignored the tug and kept walking straight, dragging Devic along behind. Why was he doing this? Let go you idiot! She yelled at him and swore but the boy wouldn't let go.  
  
She suddenly turned to her left and found herself staring at a blank stone wall.  
  
***Real world***  
  
Esmond and Owen lifted George to his feet and they took off after Phi and Devic (actually, George kind of stumbled...) and they reached the entrance just in time to see Phi step through...a solid rock wall... Owen's jaw dropped as Devic was dragged through the wall next and Esmond leapt at them but got there too late. The knight rubbed his hands over the spot the two had just disappeared and pounded on the wall. George leaned against the wall, "Well would ya look at that...interesting..." He sighed, "Alanna's gonna kill me..."  
  
A/N: I know that this was a short chapter, but it's a good place to stop...so let's see now. All three have been vanished + Devic who happened to be an innocent by-stander in the whole thing...but where did they go? And how will Numair and Alanna react to hearing the news? Ha! You'll have to wait till the next chapter to find out! 


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I don't know if I can make this story last for thirty chapters like my last one did. Maybe this one will be only twenty...  
  
***In the city***  
  
Esmond turned away from the wall and faced George and Owen, "We need to get back to the Palace and tell Numair what happened!"  
  
George straightened up, "There's some business I have to take care of before I go back, but I'll be there as soon as I can..."  
  
Owen narrowed his eyes, finally snapping out of his stupor, "What kind of business?"  
  
"Business that your sort won't be wanting to get mixed up in, now move!"  
  
The two knights looked at each other, then took off down the street.  
  
George took one more glance at the wall and turned around, walking slowly away from the Palace, "So that's the way you want to play it then..." He looked down the street to make sure that Esmond and Owen were out of sight, then stepped into the Dancing Dove.  
  
***At the Palace***  
  
Numair almost collided with Esmond and Owen as they sped through the halls to his study, "What in Mithros's name are you two doing? And where are Phi and Devic?"  
  
"They, they..." Esmond glanced at Owen, not quite sure how to explain it, "Well they disappeared, sir."  
  
"They what?"  
  
"We were heading home with them and then Phi went still. All of a sudden, she began to walk in the opposite direction, and it was like she was in some kind of trance. Devic said that she released some kind of magic when she began to move. Anyway, we followed her down the street and we tried to stop her, but she just kept on walking. She even punched George in the stomach because he was in her way. She turned down this alley and walked straight through a stone wall with Devic, who was holding onto her sleeve."  
  
"She walked through a stone wall?"  
  
"I know it sounds crazy, but yes, she went right through it. The strangest part was that Owen and I did not even notice the alley that she turned into while we were looking for her!"  
  
Numair walked quickly down the hall towards the large wooden double doors, followed by the knights and he quietly opened the door. He walked around the table to where Alanna was sitting with her head resting on her hands looking extremely bored and whispered something to her. Esmond and Owen hung back and watched as the Scanran diplomat leapt up in his chair and started to yell at the King. Jonathan stood up and loudly asked for the man to calm down, but he just kept yelling. Esmond caught Dom's eye, who looked like he had been doodling on a piece of paper and gave him a small grin. Dom rolled his eyes and mouthed "So boring..."  
  
Owen smiled. Raoul rose as did the second Scanran diplomat and the noise level in the room grew louder. Alanna stood up and squeezed passed the other chairs, Dom giving her a jealous look as she passed by. She and Numair grabbed Esmond and Owen and pushed them out the door, closing it firmly. Alanna cast a glance back at the room as they headed back to Nuamir's study, "I am glad to be out of there! That place was driving me insane...So, what is going on?"  
  
"Phi is gone too."  
  
"What?! How could you let her go!"  
  
Owen threw his hands into the air in exasperation, "She did not really give us a choice!"  
  
Alanna turned to Numair, "So, where did she go?"  
  
"Straight through a stone wall..."  
  
Alanna frowned, "Okay, and who witnessed this?"  
  
"We did..." Alanna turned to Esmond and Owen who automatically shrunk back.  
  
"...Did anyone else?"  
  
"Well, George did..."  
  
"George? So that is where he has been the past two days...hmm...fine. I am going to go find him. Numair, can you stay here and try to work out the magical half of the situation, like trying to figure out what kind of magic allows a person to pass through a solid wall?"  
  
The mage shrugged, "I will do my best, but it is sure to be a very complicated subject..."  
  
Alanna nodded absent-mindedly and strode back down the hallway, down the stairs, and out the front door. The two other knights turned to Numair, "So, what should we do?"  
  
"You two are going to help me. Even if you do not have any magic, I am sure I can find something useful for you to do to help us solve this puzzle."  
  
***Phi's view***  
  
As soon as she passed through the wall, a darkness overtook her and everything went blank. The same happened to Devic except that a heavy, blunt object made contact with his head and he fell unconscious.  
  
The next thing Phi knew she was lying on a couch with Tom and Alex hovering over her. She gasped and grabbed her brother by the neck in a huge bear hug, causing him to call out in surprise and fall to his knees, "I'm glad to see you're awake..."  
  
She let Tom go and sat up, "What happened? Where did you go?! Where's Devic?" She caught sight of Alex and shakily stood up, as if making sure that her body was actually under her control again. She stared at him, then reached out and slapped him and fell onto him sobbing.  
  
Alex looked confusedly from Tom to Phi and back at Tom, "What was that for?!"  
  
Phi stood back up, wiping shed tears from her cheeks, "The slap was for leaving and the rest is because I'm sorry..."  
  
Alex smiled and patted her on the back, "Oh...Well then, I'm sorry too and you're forgiven."  
  
She grinned and turned to Tom, "So, what about my questions?"  
  
"Let's see now. I can't tell you what happened because I'm not quite sure. Both Alex and I, and by the looks of it you, went into some kind of trance where we lost control of our bodies and ended up here after passing through a wall. That answer sort of covered where I went and Devic is right there." He pointed at another couch that was sitting across from the one they were standing by and she saw Devic lying face up, "He hasn't woken up yet. It seems that someone knocked him unconscious. I'm glad to see you're alright though. We were getting worried..."  
  
"You're worried! How do you think I felt! Left all alone in the middle of the night, and having to spend an entire day searching for you! I thought you were both dead!"  
  
Tom cocked his head, "How long did you say you spent looking for us?"  
  
"All day...why?"  
  
"Because I've only been here about an hour, yet I got here in the middle of the night."  
  
Alex piped up, "But from what you're saying Phi, I've been here for nearly two days, and yet it only has been a few hours..."  
  
Phi rubbed the back of her head, "So...wait a minute...what's going on?"  
  
"It seems," a thoughtful expression appeared in Tom's eyes, the one that showed he was impressed, "That somehow, time is slower in here, then it is in the real world..."  
  
"Who brought us here?" Phi looked at Tom and Alex but both of them shrugged, "You mean that you've been here for almost two days and you don't know why!"  
  
"No, I've been here for almost two hours and I don't know why..."  
  
Phi turned from looking at Alex to Devic as he stirred and blinked his eyes open, rubbing the back of his head and wincing, "Mithros...What is going on?"  
  
Tom sighed, "I really don't want to explain it again...but we were basically kidnapped and taken here."  
  
"Oh...Are you alright Phi? You look better..."  
  
She grinned, "Ya, I'm fine. Thanks for trying to stop me though...Did I hurt George?"  
  
"Only a little..." Devic smiled dryly and sat up, looking around, "Where are we?"  
  
Phi shrugged, "I would tell you but I don't know..."  
  
Tom turned away from the boy and sat down on the empty couch. Something had been bothering him about this place since the moment he woke up and found Alex's worried face hovering over his. The place was strange for some reason, and yet, when he looked around, there was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, all there was in the room were the two couches and a area rug underneath them with a geometric pattern on it that looked somewhat like a compass. The walls were plain rock, and there was only one door that led to what he supposed was the outside. Still, something unnerved him, something that he couldn't place. He leaned his head back against the top of the couch and zoned out, prodding his mind for any hints that it would give him.  
  
After five minutes of sitting around in silence, Phi was getting bored. Mostly because she had the attention span of a four year old. She got up and walked around the room, looking at all the walls and then at the door which was wooden with metal hinges and a metal doorknob. She stared at it for a while, curiosity building up inside of her like a balloon. After a moment, it popped and she reached her hand out and rested it on the handle.  
  
She wiggled it around and twisted it left and right but it seemed to be locked. She banged on the door, even though she already knew that know one would here her and tried the doorknob again...nothing. She sat down against the door and surrendered once again to boredom.  
  
Alex looked at her and tentatively took a seat next to her. Phi turned to him, "How did you survive being in here by yourself?!"  
  
"I had a lot of things to think about, but there was nothing much I could really do. I might have started talking to myself and banging my head against the wall, but I eventually pulled through..."  
  
She shook her head and grinned, "Sounds interesting...almost exciting as my day in fact...Listen," She dropped her voice down so Tom, who had struck up a conversation with Devic, couldn't hear as well and said hesitantly in English, "I'm...sorry I...yelled at you yesterday morning..."  
  
He shook his head and frowned, "No, it wasn't your fault...I think we had just been spending an...unusually long amount of time together...like Tom said..."  
  
She rested her head on his shoulder, her mind at rest for the first time in two days. He cautiously put his arm around her shoulder, as if not sure what she was doing still and not wanting to get her upset again. He relaxed as she snuggled into his long sleeve shirt though, and listened happily as Tom and Devic talked about the Gift and what kind of magic was being used.  
  
A/N: Okay, another chapter over...well, I finally got over the main cliffhanger for all you impatient and curious people, but they still have to figure out what's going on and how to get out of it! 


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I'm glad to know that people are still reading my story! Yay! Sorry this chapter took so long for me to upload...FanFiction.net wouldn't work for my computer and it was being evviilllll...*sigh* at least I got it up now, better late than never...  
  
***Phi, Tom, Alex, and Devic's View***  
  
The minutes passed slowly by. Phi and Alex had returned to the couch and were now sitting on opposite ends, draping their arms over the couch arms. Tom was sitting with his head back, staring at the ceiling and Devic was sitting upside down with his head on the ground and his feet up in the air. They all jumped when the door hinges creaked and the handle turned. Before the door opened, Devic did a summersault off the seat and clamored into a proper sitting position.  
  
A man stepped out from the darkness behind the doorway and shut the door firmly after he stepped inside. Phi stared as he turned around and smirked at them. The man looked to be in his middle to late twenties with brown hair, brown eyes and pale skin. He was very lean, and medium in height. In fact, he looked like a...normal guy. That is except for the malicious grin on his face and a slightly unsettling twinkle in his eye. He bowed mockingly to the four and walked around to the side of the room so that they could all see him easily.  
  
"I suppose your wondering what you are doing here? And maybe perhaps, where here is? I will tell you." Phi cast a nervous glance at her brother, but Tom was gazing intently at the man, as if waiting for him to pull out a dagger from behind his back, but the guy just continued to speak, "I have brought you here because I wanted to. The three of you," he acted although Devic was not there and looked at each Phi, Tom, and Alex in turn, "have sparked a interest in me from the last visit you paid Tortall. And where are you? Nowhere and yet you will be able to go anywhere."  
  
Alex furrowed his brows at the last comment. What the hell did that mean?  
  
The man turned and stared directly into Alex's eyes, "It means that you will eventually find out if good luck abandons you and you find yourselves on my bad side." Alex stared at him in disbelief. How did he do that?  
  
"It is simple. For one who seemed bright, you seem to be asking a lot of stupid questions." He cast he glance over all of them, "I can enter your mind..."  
  
A light bulb switched on in Tom's head. It was this guy who had put them in that magical trance and forced them to come here. It seemed that when he entered their minds, he could also control their bodies.  
  
"Very good..." Tom whipped his head around and glared at the man. How dare he enter his head like that, "It at least seems that one of you have the right idea. Oh, and my name is Trycos, just for when you think of me next. It was I who brought you here."  
  
Devic frowned, "Why?"  
  
"I told you already. They interest me."  
  
Devic's mind was spinning. He had spent the past three and a half years studying about the Gift and it's different forms, but he had never heard of anything like this before. Trycos's smirk widened and he began to circle the group like a shark, waiting for the best moment to devour his prey, "I admit, mine is a special case. You cannot believe what I went through to train it to become this usable, how many people I had to kill, how many fears and nightmares I had to delve into to gain control. Of course, I got better at it, as you can tell."  
  
Phi continued to stare but said, "What do you want us to do?"  
  
"Well, he spun around and stopped right next to the side of the couch she was leaning on and stared into her face, "I want new blood to play with..." Phi was outraged. New blood?! What the hell did he mean by that...? "You see, Phiona, or should I call you Phi? I have gotten bored of the Tortallian way of thinking. I want something different. A challenge. You three, you think differently than the others, your mind has been formed differently, shaped by different things. Your memories should be very entertaining to watch."  
  
Devic gaped at Trycos. This man was insane! The man swerved around the back of Tom and Devic's couch and stood right above the boy, "Many have told me I am, so maybe you are right, but maybe your not. The things I have seen would drive any one a little insane. Deaths, famines, starvation, grief, suffering, and fear...all the bad memories surface first in the mind because they usually contain the strongest amount of emotion..." A psychotic grin had grown on Trycos's face as he listed off the horrors that he had had to witness and Devic subconsciously had scooted closer to Tom and out from underneath the man as he had made his speech.  
"Unfortunately," The grin subsided and his old smirk appeared again, "I have some unfinished business to take care of in the outside. Be back in half a day!" He sauntered back to the door, opened in easily and stepped through. Only when they heard a click of a key did any of them move.  
  
Phi turned slowly to her brother, "What a freak!"  
  
Tom raised his eyebrows in agreement. The man's voice had triggered something in his mind. He jumped up onto his feet, surprising Devic who nearly fell back off the couch, "Oh my god!" Tom spun frantically around the room, as if really seeing it for the first time.  
  
Alex stood up, "What's the matter?"  
  
Tom grabbed Alex by the shoulders and shook him lightly, "We need to get out of here, now!"  
  
"Whoa, slow down dude, and let go of my arms, I'm losing circulation...Why do we need to go? I mean, obviously that guy was insane, but what did you just figure out that seems to be so important?"  
  
"That dream I had, the vision, on the very first night we were here? It happened in this room!"  
  
Devic frowned, "What happened in your vision?"  
  
"Nothing, well something happened, but I just was reaching out for the handle of that door and someone laughed. I think that someone was Trycos, and all I know is that is wasn't a nice laugh, it was more of a I-just- killed-someone laugh!"  
  
Phi raised her eyebrow, "Okayyy...Well, I hate to tell you this, but I already tried the door and it wouldn't budge..."  
  
"There has to be some way out of here! Look for a secret passage or something..."  
  
"Tom, this isn't the Hardy Boys, there won't be a secret passage way! This is real life!...Well, sort of anyway, but I don't think real bad-guys put in escape routes for the people they kidnapped."  
  
Tom sighed, "Well we need to think of something..."  
  
Phi thought for a moment, "How about if we don't let the evil guy into our minds and memories?"  
  
"No Phi, that's usually the kind of rebellion will lead to one of us being killed..."  
  
"So are you saying that we just go along with what he wants and do what ever he says?!"  
  
"At the moment, yes."  
  
Alex and Devic turned from Phi to Tom as they talked, and when they finished, Devic looked at the three of them, "Well at least there is one thing we can count on...that someone out there is looking for us, probably as we speak, unless of course it is midnight in the outside...then they're probably asleep..."  
  
Phi looked up at Alex, who had been there the longest, "How long has it been since we came here?"  
  
"I would say it has been about...thirty minutes since you and Devic got here, so that's about a day..."  
  
***Outside in the city...***  
  
Alanna strode down the main street of the city, glad to be out of the Palace for the first time in about a week. As she walked, she tried to think of where George would be at this hour. Of course! She walked up to the front of the Dancing Dove and paused a minute before stepping inside. Where else would he be other than his old hangout spot. When she was training to be a knight, this was the one place that, strange as it may sound, made her feel welcome. But now that it was being run by a different thief lord, she wasn't sure what to expect.  
  
Alanna stepped inside cautiously, one hand near the dagger that was attached to her belt. She wandered among the tables, avoiding eye contact with strangers, and made her way to the far side of the room with little difficulty. She smiled triumphantly to herself when she recognized George sitting in a table in the far corner of the room with a shady looking man that Alanna had never seen before. Her husband was talking to the older man in a hushed voice, as if not to arouse anyone's suspicion. Alanna leaned against the side of the wall, hovering just behind George, who did not seem to notice she was there. Curiously, she began to eavesdrop on their conversation.  
  
George leaned closer to the man, "Are you sure it's him?"  
  
"There ain't no body else it could be at this point, says I at least. Mind you George, others be having other opinions too..."  
  
"What others? I thought you said no one else knew?"  
  
"Oh they do...they're just not fit enough to be tellin' any stories right now..."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"They're all a bit insane...it's the mark he leaves on his victims. Every time we be sending a man out, if they come back at all, they be comin' back babbling like an idiot or totally silent, like they went mute...Other times, we be finding there bodies mangled or hung...committed suicide the other ones did. An' he never leaves any evidence, he disappears, then comes back, like some kind of shadow..."  
  
"Except he is not a shadow, he's a man. Do you know anything about him that could help me...pay him a little visit?"  
  
"If you be wanted to see him, then you're already insane. But I'll tell you this much, if ya want to meet him, just let everyone know and he'll find you. That's the way things work."  
  
George scowled and shook hands with the man to bid him goodnight, slipping two coins into his hands. The old man bowed and shuffled out of the building, securing a black hood over his head before stepping outside into the growing darkness.  
  
Before George got up, Alanna slipped into the seat the older man had been using him and grinned at George's surprised expression. He recovered quickly and settled back into his chair, "Hello Alanna. Funny thing, running into you here..."  
  
"George, you know something that you're not telling the rest of us..."  
  
"Yes and no at the same time..."  
  
"Who was that man you were just talking to and who were you talking about?"  
  
"Oh, that was just an old friend form back in the good ol' days dear. And we were discussing the information about a suspect for the recent kidnappings."  
  
"And who would that be?"  
  
George sighed and sat up, "That would be the problem dear. We know, and yet...we don't. We know his name is Trycos. He was around when I was the king of thieves, but just starting out so I didn't pay him much attention. There is nothing noticeable about him, in public anyways, but that is his weapon. He is said to have brown hair and eyes, be of medium height, and be somewhat lanky, and he never seems to get any older. The only way you can identify him is by a self-inflicted burn scar on his right hand that looks somewhat like a four-pointed star. The only problem is, if you're close enough to see it, you're basically a dead man walking and the next thing you know, you've gone insane."  
  
"So... what other information do you have on this guy?"  
  
"That's about it. Except for how...although you undoubtedly heard most of the conversation that I was previously having with my old friend, no one knows where he lives, or where his headquarters are...it's as if, how shall I say this, they are invisible?"  
  
Alanna's eyebrows rose, "Do you mean the whole going through the solid rock wall thing?"  
  
"Well, that is what I was thinking anyway. That's what first aroused my suspicions...actually, he first came to mind as soon as I heard that both Alex and Tom disappeared."  
  
"And why was that?"  
  
"There are a lot of pick-pockets, thieves, house burglars, muggers, vandals, robbers, and street rats in this city but I know of very few kidnappers that would be able to do such a thorough job twice in the twenty- four hours. Most thieves just kill people. Holding them hostage or for ransom is just too messy and bothersome, and the royal guards get on your tail a whole lot faster if you do. The kind of act that our kidnapper pulled was discrete and it left some of us wondering about our sanity, which immediately made me think of the man who is infamous for causing insanity."  
  
"Why didn't you tell me before?!"  
  
"You were busy..." Alanna glared at him, "And I couldn't and still can't really be sure. I was going to tell you, just after I got more proof."  
  
"So, how are we going to find out for sure?"  
  
"I guess we have to let him find us..."  
  
A/N: well that explains a little now don't it? The situation will become clearer as time progresses. I am planning to do more with this then currently meets the eye... 


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I'm uploading this chapter quick because of the hold-up caused by Fanfiction.net's cruddy computer network...  
  
***Tom, Alex, Phi, and Devic's View***  
  
Phi sat waiting with anticipation for Trycos to come back it had almost been thirty minutes, or half a day and she was curious, if not a little frightened, about what was going to happen next. The guy was totally erratic and she had no clue what they were here for, except that he wanted them there, which was a very strange answer.  
  
Alex smiled nervously at her and took her hand into his, trying to reassure her, and himself, that nothing was going to happen. Tom had zoned out long ago and was staring unblinkingly at the wall behind Phi and Devic, although used to long periods of silence, was beginning to get extremely bored and was tracing the design on the floor rug with his fingers on the ground.  
  
Devic sighed. There was something about this room that made things seem extra boring. Maybe because of the time difference and the fact that the last five minutes that he spent on the ground was actually two hours in the real world. He flopped back onto the overstuffed couch and began to pick at a loose thread that was poking out along the seam.  
  
Finally, the wooden door opened again and, just as he had said he would, Trycos stepped into the room. Alex's squeeze on Phi's hand became tighter and Tom seemed to snap out of his daze. He stepped jauntily over to them and rocked back in forth on his heels, "So, have you thought about your predicament yet?"  
  
Tom's gaze hardened, "As a matter of fact, I did..."  
  
"And?" Trycos's eyebrow rose as if to emphasis his curiosity.  
  
"We won't be part of your little game Trycos. You can go pick up some other toys to play with..."  
  
Phi, Alex, and Devic whipped their heads around to stare at Tom. This wasn't what they had planned on doing! What was he thinking?  
  
An almost gleeful smirk appeared on Trycos's face and he said in mock sympathy, "Then I'm afraid I will have to convince you otherwise..."  
  
A strange milky haze washed over the stone walls and the door, then it swept over the ceiling and the floor. It looked for all the world as if the two couches, the rug, and the five of them were hovering in a vast, empty space of nothingness.  
  
The four of them were awestruck for a moment at what had just happened, then quickly turned back to Trycos as he began to speak again, "You see, I have the power to control what you see, hear, smell, taste, and even feel. In this room, I can make your nightmares and deepest fears become reality or your biggest dreams come true. I have the power here and you are indeed only toys for me to play with."  
  
Tom tried to look calm, but Phi heard a slight shaking in his voice, "There is no way that you could possibly do all that. You're bluffing."  
  
"Oh, am I?" A psychotic grin appeared on Trycos's face and he lowered his eyes, as if concentrating.  
  
The four spun around and desperately began looking for anything out of the ordinary that Trycos could be thinking of conjuring up, but only Phi noticed it at first. Maybe that is because it happened to her.  
  
A small, tickling sensation ran through her body. At first she thought it was only a shiver, but then the feeling became more intense around her middle. Suddenly, her muscles seemed to contract and a sting shot through her. She doubled over in pain on the couch and Alex called out to the others and slid over to her, a worried expression on his face.  
  
Phi felt the temperature in her body began to rise and the pain grew and spread from her stomach to her chest. She broke out into a cold sweat and fell on her knees to the ground. Alex tried to lunge forward, but found that he couldn't move; neither could Tom and Devic.  
  
Trycos's grin became wider as Phi struggled inwardly, trying to ward of the white hot pain that was beginning to spread up her neck into her head, trying to convince herself that none of it was real. She gasped for breath but found that the air couldn't reach her lungs. Slowly, she collapsed into a heap on the rug, and the rest of them watched on helplessly as she struggled hopelessly for a last breath and finally stopped moving altogether and grew still.  
  
Tears fell from Tom's eyes. How could he have let this happen to Phi, his baby sister? Next to him, Devic stared horrified at Phi's body, not quite believing that one of his best friends was dead. Alex lunged forward again, and finding that he was finally able to move, jumped out of the seat and landed next to Phi.  
  
He turned her over carefully, not caring that Trycos was watching on, and lifted her head up with his hand, "God no...it's not true. Please God, say it's not true..." Tom put his head in his hands, Devic began to whisper a prayer under his breath, and Alex pressed Phi close to him, stroking her back with his free hand, "...You can't be dead..."  
  
Trycos laughed and a huge surge of hatred raged up into Alex's chest, "You fools! Of course it isn't real!"  
  
Phi's eyes snapped open and she gasped for air. Tom seemed to collapse in his seat with relief and Devic sighed happily. Alex grasped Phi even tighter and carefully lifted her onto the couch again, looking overjoyed but extremely pissed off at the same time, which is not an easy thing to do. He gave Trycos a deathly glare and released Phi so she could shakily return to a sitting position. The man laughed again, "You four are so easily fooled! The only one who didn't believe Phiona was dying was Phiona! You all are going to be much more fun to play with than I thought! But really, you boys should have realized it first thing. I was playing off your fears! Can you believe that all three of you had a fear of Phi here getting hurt? It was just too good of an opportunity to pass up..."  
  
Phi's face finally returned to its normal color, "But...but I died! I felt myself die!"  
  
Trycos circled behind the couches and the white began to fade and disappear and the room returned to its normal self again too, "You thought you were dying. In fact, you stopped believing it was a trick after I stopped you from breathing. After that, it was easy to pretend that you were indeed deceased."  
  
The man spun on his heal, began walking towards the door, but stopped as his hand was on the handle, "Next time I come, I'll have to dig a little deeper. Oh! Never mind! I just thought of a great game..."  
  
He turned the handle, stepped outside, and slammed the door behind him.  
  
***Outside, in the Palace***  
  
Numair gathered Owen and Esmond up into a loose huddle after hours of working on how to find Alex, Tom, Phi, and Devic, "All right, I think that I may have discovered the type of spell that the kidnapper would have used to pass through a solid wall. I would have suggested at first that it was an illusion, but since you, Esmond, say you actually touched the wall, that doesn't seem very likely. However, I have found a way to make solid things permeable. It is not an easy spell mind you, in fact it took me several hours to prepare last night, but I think that I should be able to work with it now..."  
  
The mage turned around to face the wall behind him and began to focus his Gift onto it while muttering what Esmond and Owen assumed was the spell incantation. Numair drew a symbol with his right hand onto the wall and there was a flash of light. He dropped his hands and looked very pleased with himself, "There we go! Go ahead you two, try to go through it..."  
  
Esmond and Owen looked at each other, shrugged, and stepped towards the wall. Owen stuck out his arm and gasped as it passed right through the rocks. Esmond, stared at Owen's arm, or really, where Owen's arm should have been, then got up his courage and stepped all the way through. The knight passed through the wall and ended up in what looked like a cellar.  
  
Numair and Owen soon joined him on the other side and Owen looked around, "We must be under the dinning hall!"  
  
Numair cast a glance around, "Yes, I suppose we are. Well then, now that we know it works properly, let us go back and tell Alanna so we can leave and go find Tom, Alex, Phi, and Devic."  
  
The two knights nodded and were about to follow Numair. As the mage walked quickly towards the wall, instead of going through it, he ran smack into it and fell to the ground. Owen helped him up while trying desperately to hide a smile and Esmond had to turn around. Numair stood up and looking slightly dazed said, "I guess the spell wore off! We'll have to go the long way then, come on!"  
  
Numair rubbed his nose where it had hit the rocks and led the way up a flight of rickety wooden stairs to the kitchen, surprising several cooks as he pushed up the trap door that was at the top of the staircase, stepped out, and brushed his robes off. Owen and Esmond came next, grinning politely at the startled looks on the servants faces to see two knights and a black robe mage come out of their cellar and hurried out into the dinning hall, where the three of them got more strange stares.  
  
In the dinning hall luckily no one seemed to notice them, probably because of all the bustle of suppertime activity and they slipped back out into the hallway without being questioned easily.  
  
When they got outside the room Numair turned to the other two and in a business like manner said, "Now that we know it works, we should go find Lady Alanna and tell her that we are ready to go as soon as she and George can locate Tom, Alex, Phi, and Devic."'  
  
Owen looked surprised, "You mean they know what happened to them?"  
  
"Yes. After Alanna found George last night, he told her about a man who might have kidnapped them. She told me this morning, but she told me not to tell you two until I found a way to pass through solid objects."  
  
An annoyed look flashed across Esmond's face about not being told but Owen seemed to somewhat understand the reason for all the secrecy.  
  
The three headed down the main staircase and were about to step outside when someone called out to them from behind. Numair, Esmond, and Owen spun around to come face to face with a grinning Kel.  
  
Esmond and Owen jogged over to greet her and soon they were engaged deep in conversation.  
  
Kel gestured over to the locked double doors at the top of the staircase, "What is going on in there? Are they still trying to work out a treaty?"  
  
Esmond nodded, "Yes, and they've been at it for days...Arguing and fighting into the late hours of the night. I think that Rauol is about ready to crack and choke one of the diplomats though, he looked pretty grumpy the last time I passed him in the hall..."  
  
Owen turned to Kel, "And Dom isn't having such a swell time either. He would probably like to know that you are back and it would be an excellent excuse for him to take a break. When did you get back anyway?"  
  
"Just a few minutes ago. In fact, Tobe is still putting Peachblossom and Hoshi away...By the way, where were you three going?"  
  
"To look for Alanna to tell her that Numair is ready to find Tom, Alex, Phi, and Devic."  
  
"What?!" A shocked expression appeared on Kel's face and her jaw seemed to drop, "The same Tom, Alex, and Phi that were here three years ago?! And Devic?! They're back?!? When...how...why are they missing?!"  
  
Esmond cast a glance at Owen. He had forgotten that Kel hadn't been in the city for the past few months and probably had no idea what was going on. He took a deep breath and said, "They got here about a week ago because an immortal was in their dimension and they needed to get it back here so Numair re-opened the portal and they accidentally got pulled through along with the immortal. They have been disappearing one by one over the past three days, starting with Alex, then Tom, then Phi and Devic but they are hidden by some kind of magical spell and Numair has been working over the past two days on a way to get through it. He found a way and now we are going to go find Lady Alanna so we can go find them."  
  
As Esmond spoke, Kel's eyes went from him to Owen to Numair, then back to him and her jaw seemed to drop even further, "Okay...I guess I missed a lot of action...Give me just a few minutes, I want to come with you, but I want to change first...I haven't washed these clothes for a month..."  
  
Esmond and Owen took a small step away from her and realized that she was covered in filth and several layers of dirt and mud. They nodded and she jogged up the stairs.  
  
Numair looked at them, "She better not take too much time to change, otherwise, it will be pitch black and freezing by the time we set out."  
  
Owen turned to him and grinned, "Don't worry. One thing you learn about Kel is that she can be very fast when she wants to be..."  
  
"Hmm...Still women are known for taking their time freshening up and Kel..."  
  
He was interrupted by the second lady knight as she practically ran down the staircase, "All right, I am ready! Let's go!"  
  
Owen gave Numair a ha-I-was-right look and they started down the cobblestone path and out towards the city. 


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: I'm gonna have fun with this part of the story...maybe I can vent some of my hard to vision action into it. I'll apologize ahead of time for any hard to understand parts in the story that are possibly coming up...  
  
***In the city***  
  
Numair, Esmond, Owen, and Kel sprinted down the deserted streets as best they could in the slippery darkness. Night had fallen earlier than Numair had expected and Owen was wishing that he had brought along a torch. The air was growing colder and Kel expected that it was about to start snowing any minute now, she could see her breath coming out in puffs of air as they raced along the dark cobblestone path. Alanna had told them to meet her and George in the Dancing Dove, and none of the four were looking forward to it. The place could almost be decent in the day, especially during markets when travelers came in to buy drinks, but at night the only people who went their had a price on their heads as big as the royal treasury.  
  
Numair stopped to catch his breath before they entered, finding the freezing air a little hard on the lungs. He turned to the others, "All right. You are all knights and I don't want to see you cause any trouble in this place."  
  
Kel grinned and pushed her way passed him into the tavern, "That is funny, I was just about to say the same to you."  
  
Esmond and Owen followed next, slight smiles playing across their half-frozen faces followed by the mage who gave the lady knight a glare before stepping in.  
  
Kel's fingers twitched on the hilt of her dagger as she got looks from rouges at the bar and was glad that her face was at least partly covered by a brown hood that was drawn low over her face. Owen glanced timidly around, scanning the area for George or Alanna and Esmond followed closely behind his younger friend, keeping a sharp eye out for anyone who seemed suspicious. Numair nodded politely at a roughed-up man who was eyeing him and herded the group over to the far corner where two hooded figures sat, talking avidly to each other.  
  
When they caught sight of the four they motioned them to come over and sit down. Kel did so reluctantly but relaxed at once when she heard the Lioness's voice, "Sorry about the disguises Keladry, good to see you again by the way. George would rather not want to be seen in here, since there are people here who would enjoy having his head on their wall..."  
  
"Of course, I have many of their ears so I suppose I deserve it."  
  
Numair looked from the crowd of people behind them and then back at George, "So, you know what we have to do? Could you fill the rest of us in?"  
  
"I suppose I could. Listen up though, 'cause I won't be telling you all a second time, too many ears listening on. The kidnappers name is Trycos."  
  
Esmond looked surprised under his hood. All of the knights had worn hoods to hide their faces. Many of the people here would probably recognize them if they took them off, "That's his whole name? Just 'Trycos'?"  
  
"Just Trycos. That's all he ever tells people. He supposedly has his hideout somewhere in the city and from the little adventure we had with the walk-through wall we all had a few days ago, I would say that would be it. But the guys dangerous, so actually I'm glad that you brought Kel along...we're gonna need all the help we can get..."  
  
Kel's voice was curious, "Is this Trycos really such a good fighter?"  
  
"Fighter? No, a page could fight better than he can. It's just the more minds that are there the harder it is for him to control a single one."  
  
"Oh, okay, so what are we planning on doing?"  
  
George glanced around and leaned in closer to the rest of them, "First, before I tell you, you all must promise that no matter how absurd it sounds, you will follow the plan exactly, to the tiniest detail." The four nodded and George continued, "Good. I expected as much from servants of the crown..." Alanna elbowed him, "Sorry dearest, no offense meant. Well, yes it was, but anyway, back to business. The first step is to get Trycos's attention. To do that, I have been spreading a rumor around all bloody day about how a group of knights thought that they could take him down."  
  
Owen turned to George and sighed, "You meant us didn't you?"  
  
"Yes, actually I did. Second step is we 'wander' close to the spot where Phi vanished through the wall and hopefully he finds us and brings us all through."  
  
Esmond interrupted, "And if not?"  
  
"If not, we go to plan B, which is we get ourselves drunk, run out into the middle of the street and start calling out his name and insulting him so much that it would impossible for even him to ignore us...I would prefer to stick to the first plan."  
  
Numair shook his head, "Yes, so would I..."  
  
George glanced at the mage before saying, "Next, once we are inside, we overwhelm Trycos, kick his ass and bring back our friends. Sound good?"  
  
Kel looked as Esmond before nodding and Owen just stared.  
  
Numair stood up, "Right then. Let's go!"  
  
The rest of them stood up too and followed the mage out the door.  
  
***Alex, Tom, Phi, and Devic's View***  
  
Trycos was back in a minute and turned around to smile at the group, who each gave him a look of burning hatred in return, "Well I am glad to see you all missed me. It seems that while I was in here, someone decided that they would like to pay me a visit, so you might be getting company in a short while. Maybe you will know them...I heard that it is a group of knights! No matter, I can make room for all of you...but let's see where did we leave off? Oh yes, I came up with a brilliant idea..."  
  
The whiteness swirled around the room again and Phi, Alex, Tom, and Devic found themselves free floating in the nothingness, Trycos's voice echoing through its vastness, "I am curious to see how you do when faced with your worst fears. I will tell you who's it is before it starts just because I am such a nice guy. Devic, your turn is first. Let me see now..." Devic felt a tickling in his head, "Oh! What a nice game to play! It seems that you have a certain fear of fire that came from when your family's first house burned down! It's a shame that you were able to rebuild it..."  
  
The voice faded, and a wooden floor appeared beneath their feet. Phi and Tom lost their balance and fell to the ground as whitewashed walls began to appear around them. Pictures faded onto the walls and rugs seemed to dissolve out of the wooden floor and harden underneath them. They seemed to be in some sort of hallway with doors on either end of the room. Devic went pale, "Oh Mithros, it's my old house."  
  
A large window appeared on one of the walls and Alex could see that it was night outside, and then he noticed something strange. Their old clothes that they had been wearing a moment before were gone and were replaced by embroidered tunics, breaches, and riding boots. Phi looked down disgustedly at the lacey, tight-fitting, uncomfortably low cut dress that had appeared on her body, and her hair had been pulled up into a sort of bun. Alex turned and helped her up and Devic spun around gapping, "This is exactly as I remember it, nothings changed...that means that the fire should start right about..."  
  
But he didn't have time to finish his sentence because just then a large pair of heavily adorned door from the end of the exploded open and flames spilled out, licking the empty door frame and spreading quickly over the rugs as embers flew in all directions. Alex swore and Tom struggled back to his feet just in time to be knocked back down as a second explosion rocked the house, sending a column of fire ripping through the hall, charring everything in it's path. Devic grabbed Phi's hand, pulled her to his feet, motioned for Alex and Tom to follow, and took off through the other door and the roar of the fire grew louder.  
  
" A candle was knocked over in my father's lab!" Devic was yelling over the noise as he pulled Phi through a strange set of twists and turns down corridor after corridor, "It lighted up some of his chemicals, then some kind of blasting powder that he had been experimenting with! It ended up destroying our entire house and about a quarter of our acreage! This is the way out!"  
  
He threw opened the next door, only to find it covering a solid stone wall. Trycos's voice echoed again through the walls, "Oh my! What are you going to do now Devic?"  
  
The young teen through himself against the wall, "No! This is the only door to the outside! This is the only way out!"  
  
"I don't think so!" Tom grabbed Devic, pulling him away from the door and set off at a sprint back down the hallway, going back the way they came. Alex and Phi followed him, but she began to slow down. Finally she stopped all together and leaned against a wall. Alex slowed down and ran back to her, "What's the matter? Are you hurt?!"  
  
"No! It's these shoes!" She yanked a pair of small high heel dress shoes off her feet and threw them over her shoulder, "That's better...Come on! We have to catch up!"  
  
The two took off down the hall that Tom had taken, and Alex glimpsed him turning left at a turn ahead, "Phi! I saw him! He went left!" They sped down the hall and were almost there when a huge smoldering beam above their heads creaked and fell. Alex called out and threw himself on top of Phi and the both of them rolled out of the way just in time to avoid having been squished. Sparks and ash exploded from the beam as it hit the floor and a bunch of burning timbers fell from the hole the fallen beam had made in the ceiling, completely blocking the left path.  
  
Alex waited before he heard the last timber fell before he uncovered Phi and helped her to her feet. They were both covered in soot and ash, Alex's tunic had been singed, and Phi's hair had completely come undone. She stared in horror at the blocked path, "Oh God Alex, you saved my life...again! Why can't I ever save yours..."  
  
"I dunno, maybe it's just luck...anyway, our path to Tom and Devic is lost, so where do we go now?"  
  
"What other choice do we have? Let's go right."  
  
***  
  
Tom whipped around as he heard another explosion from behind. He and Devic turned around just in time to see the ceiling in the hallway behind them collapsed in a burst of flame. Tom's face grew ashen and he spun around, "Devic, where are Alex and Phi?!"  
  
"They were...behind us..."  
  
Tom ran over to the wreckage, "ALEX! PHI! Are you alright!"  
  
He waited but there was no response. Devic pulled on his sleeve, "Remember Tom, if they di...if they got hurt, it won't be for real, and we still need to find a way out. What was your idea?"  
  
Tom turned slowly around, "Remember that big window in the hallway we were first in?"  
  
"Yes. Tom, are you thinking what I think you are thinking?"  
  
"It's a way out isn't it? Let's hurry before the fire in there spreads anymore." Devic nodded and the two raced back to where they started.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, Phi and Alex where having a heck of a time avoiding chunks of falling ceiling that was aflame and both had gotten slammed against a wall by the other, trying to avoid getting killed several times.  
  
They jogged down yet another hall and Alex threw open a door that led into a huge room that looked like it was a ballroom. Now all Phi and Alex could see was the burning tapestries on the wall and a circle of fire that had surrounded them as soon as they stepped through the door. Phi grabbed Alex's shoulder and pointed, "Look! We can jump out that window!"  
  
"Jump out the window!? Are you crazy? How are we going to get over there, and who knows what's out there! We could end up jumping from three stories high up!"  
  
"Do you have a better idea?!"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Then unless you think of one, we're doing mine!" Phi stepped up to the very edge of the flames. Alex sighed and walked up next to her and grabbed her hand, "On the count of three...one...two...three!"  
  
They burst through the flame circle and sprinted towards the window. They smashed through it with their shoulders and had just enough time to look down before they plummeted for about twenty feet.  
  
***  
  
Tom and Devic reached the hall after making it through the first door they had gone through that was now engulfed in fire. They burst into the room and ran to the window. For a minute, Devic seemed to freeze. He was about a foot away from the window and Tom had already crashed through, sending shards of glass flying out with him. Devic turned and looked around. He was seeing his home disappear for the second time, and for the second time he felt a huge pain well up inside his chest and spill out his eyes as tears. The last time he had seen this happen, he was five and his older sister had died trying to save him. He shook his head, trying to clear it, before launching himself out the widow and hitting the ground about five feet below.  
  
Tom, who had been staring nervously up at the window, waiting for him, now jogged up next to him and help him up onto his feet. A crash sounded off in the not-to-far distance...like another window shattering. Tom and Devic looked at each other before taking off around the other side of the building.  
  
Tom's stomach flipped as his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness of the night and saw two bodies lying on the well-cut grass surrounded by tiny pieces of glass. Phi's multiple skirts had been partly burned and Alex groaned as he rose shakily to his elbows, "What a jump..."  
  
Devic looked shocked, "You jumped from the ballroom window?!"  
  
"Well we would've picked a different one if we knew the drop was so big..."He paused to watch Phi rise to her feet, "How did you guys get out?"  
  
Tom grinned, "Well I guess great minds really do think alike Alex, because we jumped out a window too, just not one that was two and a half stories high..."  
  
Trycos's voice appeared again, although this time it seemed somewhat disappointed, "Well, I see that you managed to escape with your lives in tact... Oh, my new guests have arrived!" The scenery dissolved around them and they were suddenly back in the room with the two couches, Trycos heading towards the door, "Let's see who it is..."  
  
***Outside***  
  
The group made it back to the main street, looking anxiously around for the alleyway that Esmond, Owen, and George remembered. Kel gazed around, "I don't see anything. If I would have known that we needed to find something magically hidden, I would have brought my griffin feather headband..."  
  
Owen looked around, confusion written clearly on his face, "But it was here a few days ago! It was right here!" He pointed at the side of a house.  
  
Esmond went up to it and examined the space, "Owen's right...It was right here."  
  
"Hmm..." George paced the street across from them and they all turned to look, "Maybe, all we need to do is just look away for a few moments and...there, you see!" The group whipped around and an alleyway had appeared exactly where it had been before.  
  
Alanna wandered into it followed by the knights, Numair, and her husband, "That was a nice trick, but I'm waiting to be impressed..."  
  
"Then come inside..." A drifting voice had come out of the wall, "I have something that will impress you and do so much more..."  
  
Alanna rolled her eyes and, closely followed by George, cautiously stepped into the wall and, finding that her foot went right through it, went all the way in. Esmond walked up third and carefully touched his boot against the wall. It was solid. He threw his hands up into the air, "Not again!"  
  
Numair gently pushed him aside and did his spell on the wall. It flashed brightly for a moment then returned to its normal color. The mage bowed, half-mockingly, "After you Esmond."  
  
The knight grinned and stepped through the wall, followed by Owen, and Kel went last. She turned to Numair, "Aren't you coming too?"  
  
"I should probably stay here in case you need to get out again." Kel nodded and stepped through, only to have a cold darkness sweep over her mind and she passed out.  
  
A/N: Now that more people are in there, things should get more interesting. I would love any kind of feed-back/reviews/comments about my story as I have been getting fewer and fewer ever since I last threatened to stop writing...and a lot has happened since then...I WANT TO KNOW HOW YOU LIKE MY STORY!!! 


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: (Review response)*awed silence*Are you serious, am I actually on that many people's Fav Stories List? I had absolutely no idea...hmm...I feel so special now! And slightly warm and fuzzy... And about the whole misspell on Keladry's name last time, I changed it...sorry about that...I was tired... Sorry "Mad Bio", or G (you know the rest) as I so fondly like to call you, that I didn't tell you earlier. If it's any consolation, I often do checkout your page and see if you've done anything new...Damn FanFiction.net! I would have uploaded sooner, but...it wouldn't let me!  
  
***Inside Trycos's hideout***  
  
Trycos stepped aside, away from the door and five people fell through. A sort of twisted smile appeared on his face, "Oh look. It seems that these are some friends of yours..." He looked straight into Alex's eyes, who was staring at the pile of bodies in the doorframe, "Kel, Alanna, George, Esmond, and Owen. I expect you four to make them feel welcome...I should go check to make sure none of them...stayed behind..." Trycos turned and left, locking the door behind him again.  
  
The four rushed forward and heaved Alanna and George onto the two couches and spread Kel, Owen, and Esmond out on the rug. Devic cast a nervous glance at Tom, "Are they all right?"  
  
"They should be fine in a few minutes...now you know what it looked like when you two came through the door."  
  
Phi glanced up and caught Alex's eyes resting on her before he hurriedly looked back down at George, who he was testing for a pulse. She turned away and looked back at Kel, "You say it will only take a couple of minutes? They seem pretty out to me..."  
  
"Don't worry, they'll come around soon."  
  
***A few minutes later***  
  
Alanna blinked her eyes open and tried to remember what happened. The last thing she remembered was passing through the wall...Trycos! Someone was looking down at her. She sprang up into a sitting position and drew her dagger. "Whoa! Alanna! It's Alex! Watch where you point those things...you could hurt somebody..."  
  
She blinked a few more times and her vision cleared. Her blade was at Alex's throat, "Sorry about that...I thought you were someone else."  
  
"I hope so..." Alex stood up and brushed himself off.  
  
"Where's everyone else? What happened, and where is Trycos?"  
  
Tom appeared next to Alex, "George is on the couch next to you, Kel, Owen, and Esmond are on the floor. They'll be fine in a few seconds."  
  
As if on cue, George sprang to life. He sat up so fast that he threw himself off the couch, nearly landing on Esmond, who was just beginning to stir, "Gods! Oww...I should really learn to wake up more calmly..." George rubbed his nose where it had collided with the floor and cast a wary glance around the room, "Trycos has left, has he?"  
  
Tom nodded, "Yep. He told us that we should make you feel at home..."  
  
"I bet he did..."  
  
Esmond sat up shakily and looked sleepily around the room. When he had taken everything in, he elbowed Kel lightly in the side and she woke up too. Owen rose onto his elbows, "What's going on?"  
  
Phi appeared behind him, Devic right beside her. She grinned, "Welcome to our prison..."  
  
Kel stared up at her, and then at Devic, Alex, and Tom. They were still in their outfits from the burning house, and they looked very disheveled and a little crispy, "What happened to you?"  
  
"I was caught in a burning building and jumped out of a second story window...but besides that, not much."  
  
Owen looked confusedly at her, Devic, Tom, and Alex, "But how in the world where you able to get out of here?"  
  
Tom gave him a hand up, "We never left..."  
  
George glanced around the small room, shot Alanna a glance that said I-hope-we're-not-too-late and turned back to Phi, "You say you jumped out a second story window?"  
  
"Actually," Devic stepped forward, "It was more like two and a half stories..."  
  
"Oh...I see..."  
  
Alex rolled his eyes at Tom, knowing full well what was going through the Tortallians' heads, "We're not crazy, yet anyway. But I guess you won't believe us until Trycos comes back...maybe one of you will give him some new ammo to 'play' with..."  
  
Alanna turned to him, "I do not understand..."  
  
Alex sighed, wishing more then anything else at the moment that they would believe him, "Don't worry, you will soon enough...Just remember, when he comes back, which should be any minute now that you all are awake, don't believe anything you see..."  
  
Phi helped Kel and Esmond to their feet, glanced at Alex, and continued his sentence for him, "...even death is an illusion here."  
  
"Oh...We will try to keep that in mind..."  
  
***Outside...***  
  
Numair felt a ripple in his magic. Someone was coming back through the wall! He leapt aside and hid behind some old crates across from where he had cast the spell just in time to miss being seen by a man who stepped out of the wall and peered around. Numair peeked over the top of the crate, thanking the gods that it was so dark. He didn't recognize the man and by the sneer that appeared on his face, he quickly realized that he must be Trycos. But then what had happened to the others? Did they get trapped inside too? The mage slid down against the wall and waited silently for the man to leave.  
  
But he didn't move. Trycos just stood there, gazing unblinkingly around, then turned around and stepped back through the wall. Numair shakily stood up. That had been much too close a call for comfort, but something was bothering the mage. He had no doubt that the man had sensed him, or at least his magic, after all, Trycos did walk through it and unless he was a complete idiot he should have felt something strange.  
  
***Back inside***  
  
Trycos appeared again and everyone turned to look at him. Kel relaxed somewhat when she saw that Numair wasn't with him. She had been fearing that Trycos would have found the mage outside and brought him in too, but they needed him to stay where he was in case anything went wrong. Trycos sneered at her, "Of course I found him! But I thought it would be more interesting to leave him where he was..."  
  
Kel's eyes widened in surprise but George snorted, totally unimpressed by the man's mind tricks. Trycos sauntered over to him, "Well aren't we full of ourselves, George Cooper? I see you recognize me. No, I don't age, do I? Unfortunately, you did." George's eyes narrowed. Trycos had obviously hit on one of his soft spots.  
  
Trycos walked back over to the door and stood in the front of the room, "I am sure that Tom, Alex, Phi, and Devic already informed you about what I can do here. Wait...they haven't? Oh, well this will be fun then! So many minds to enter, we must find something that will do some damage to all of you though...hmm...let's see how you handle this..."  
  
The room dissolved again into the milky white haze and another scene began to rematerialize, just as it had before when Tom, Alex, Phi, and Devic had gone into the burning house. Now, a wooden deck appeared under their feet, the smell of salt and fish filled the air and dark, stormy clouds appeared overhead. Kel, Owen, and Esmond gazed around amazed, but George and Alanna immediately began to hurry across the deck, searching for any kind of weapon.  
  
They were on an old, 15th century ship, or that's what it looked like anyway. Phi raced over to the railing and looked out over the gray, churning ocean. There was no sight of land anywhere. She turned back around and realized that they were all wearing baggy shirts, breaches, and boots. This wasn't one of Alex's, Tom's, or her thoughts then, "Who recognizes this place and where are we?"  
  
Kel shook her head, "I have only heard of days like this from sailors, I have never actually been out on a day like this."  
  
They had begun to yell because the roar of the waves crashing against the side of the boat was beginning to drown out every other sound. Alanna stumbled back from the other side of the main deck and leaned against the railing, "There is not a single sword on this entire ship..."  
  
"...Or harpoons, nets, or spears!", George came around from the other side, "As far as I can tell, we're the only things on this heap of scrap wood!"  
  
Alanna's face began to turn a sickly shade of green, "I hate boats..." She leaned out over the edge of the ship and stared down at the water, trying to calm her stomach.  
  
Owen was still looking around, awestruck, "What happened? How did he do that?!"  
  
Tom turned to him, "He used someone's thoughts or memories to sort of re-create this ship and whatever happens to it...the only problem is, we don't know what is going to happen!"  
  
"Mother Goddess..." The water that Alanna had been staring at began to boil and churn.  
  
Everyone ran to the railing and peered into the water. Alex turned to Tom, "What the hell is that...?"  
  
Kel answered the question for him, "Not good. Tom, I though that you said Trycos could only recreate memories?!"  
  
"Well, that is what we thought! Why, what is going on?"  
  
"This is exactly like a story I heard from an old sailor when I was traveling. You know that saying, 'Seeing the Kraken'?"  
  
Esmond turned to look at her, his eyes growing wide, "Please don't tell me that that is a..."  
  
But he didn't have a chance to finish his sentence. A huge tentacle shot out of the boiling spot in the water and lashed out at the ship. The tentacle smashed into the main mast and sent it hurdling out into the ocean. Another tentacle came out and thrust itself into the hull of the ship, breaking an enormous hole into it.  
  
Kel reached for her dagger, but when her hand couldn't find it, she looked down at her belt. Her dagger was gone. The boat began to lurch and tip down, the hole slowly taking in water and the hull of the ship began to sink.  
  
More tentacles were flung out of the water and wrapped themselves around the ship, shattering the woodwork and frame and sending splinters and beams crashing down. Alanna stood up and began trying to blast at the tentacles with her Gift, but every hit only seemed to make the Kraken angrier and one of the tentacles whipped around and smashed the deck where the Lioness was standing, sending her flying several feet. George ran over to her and helped her back onto her feet, "What do we do?!"  
  
Kel dived out of the way of an incoming tentacle, "Without weapons, there's not much we can do!"  
  
By this time there was about twelve tentacles lashing themselves around the boat, and something large began to surface from out of the ocean. Devic, who was against the railing, looked over and shouted, "Look! Its head is coming up!"  
  
Just then, a tentacle reached out and grabbed Devic from the side, smashed through the railing and pulled him over the edge. Phi dashed over, but the Kraken was already drawing Devic into the water, "Devic! The Kraken has Devic!" Before anyone could stop her, she dove off the ship after him.  
  
Alex ran over to the spot where she disappeared and Tom was just able to stop him from jumping overboard too. Tom hulled Alex back to the middle of the ship, where the rest of the group was, and it took him and Esmond to keep him there, "Alex! She is fine, remember?"  
  
"But they can still feel it Tom! Remember when Phi died and afterwards when she said it actually had felt like she was dying?! It might not be real, but they're going to be in pain anyway, they're going to feel it!"  
  
"I know Alex, you don't have to remind me..." Alex turned around and looked into Tom's face. A firm and determined expression was set on his face, but Alex could just make out unshed tears hanging in his eyes.  
  
Esmond called out in surprise as another tentacle wrapped around his legs and began to pull him to the edge of the boat. Kel leapt up and grabbed Esmond's hands to try and pull him out, but the Kraken pulled harder, yanked Esmond out of her grasp and sent him plummeting into the sea. Kel fell backwards, a strange, vengeful glare sparkling in her eyes, "When is he going to stop this, when we are all dead?!"  
  
Trycos's voice rang out over the ship and the ocean, drowning out all other sounds, just as it had for Tom and Alex back in the Devic's old house, "Why, I was just waiting for someone to ask...". The scenery began to dissolve into whiteness again and the wooden desk was replaced by long red carpet, the ocean replaced by tall, wallpapered walls, and the stormy sky replaced by a vaulted ceiling adorned with a very expensive looking diamond, non-electric, chandelier.  
  
Trycos's voice appeared again, "I took this lovely thought from, Alex I believe. It sounded interesting so I though I might have the lot of you try it out..." Alex looked around at the mansion-ish house, then down at his clothes. He was wearing a sort of suit that looked as if it had come straight from the late 1800's in America, with cuffs and really shiny black dress shoes.  
  
He looked up at Tom who seemed to be wearing some sort of cloak thing...Alex choked back a laugh. He looked for all the world like Sherlock Holmes! He even had that ridiculous hat. Slowly, Alex turned and looked the others over, who were glaring around the room, not looking too pleased with their current situation, but Phi, Devic, and Esmond where still missing. Kel's hair had been pinned up and she was wearing a green dress, Alanna's hair was down but she had a well fitted gray dress on that looked like it would have been the female version of a suit. George and Owen were dressed much like Alex and didn't looked to happy about their clothes either.  
  
Alanna turned to him and glared, "Well, what is going on, and where are we?"  
  
Alex snapped back into reality (well...not really reality, but you all know what I mean), "I dunno. I've never been here in my life..."  
  
Kel sighed, "Well then you must have heard about it from somewhere..."  
  
"Maybe...but this isn't even our time period, this is like a hundred years too early..."  
  
Tom's face became thoughtful, "Maybe...maybe it is from a story you read or a movie you watched?"  
  
"Maybe so Sherlock..." Tom looked down at his outfit and grinned while everyone else just looked even more confused at the comment, "But if this memory matches up with the others in frightening levels, you would think that I would...remember...it..."  
  
"What is the matter Alex?" Owen's voice was shaking a little, obviously expecting something to jump out at them from on of the multiple shadowy corners in the room.  
  
"I just remembered where we are..."  
  
"And?"  
  
"This is part of an old horror movie I watched when I was like eight or something. It was made in the forties, I think, and it was in black and white. I can't even remember the name, but it gave me nightmares for months..."  
  
Tom grinned a little at the last comment, "Oh, I think I remember that. Didn't you watch the movie and then you refused to come over to our house for a sleepover for three months because you were afraid of something 'getting you'?...Say, Alex...what were you afraid of?"  
  
Alex took a deep breath and sighed as the chandelier flickered and went out, "Ghosts..."  
  
A/N: Wow, this story is getting confusing...let's see, for anyone who needs help with my completely screwed up plot-line that I'm having way to much fun with...the first big vision Trycos gave them was that of being in Devic's first house that had burned down when he was a young boy. The second was they were on a boat that got attacked by a Kraken and Phi, Devic, and Esmond "die". (sorry for any misspellings but I was too lazy to look how Tamora Pierce spelled it and there is more than one way...this is mine.)The third is when Trycos sticks the survivors into a haunted house. 


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: I'm updating so soon because I am into the story...I don't care if anyone else is! Whahahahaha! *cough*cough* Mad Bio~ Nah, I didn't get it from the dementors...it's probably a mix of everything I've read/watched...some of it might of though, it's kinda hard to tell...Anyways...  
  
***Numair's View***  
  
The hours slowly passed by and there was still no sign of Alanna, George, Kel, Esmond, Owen, Devic, Tom, Alex, or Phi...and that was a lot of people not to hear back from! He feared the worst but decided to stay right where he was until there was some sign that they were all either alive and well, in which case he would find some way to get them out of there, or that...they were all dead, in which case...he had no idea what he was going to do.  
  
The mage sighed and sat down on the ground with his back against the wall, faced towards the walk-through rock wall so he could see everything right away if something was to happen. He rubbed his hands together for warmth and huddled down deeper into his cloak. It was well past midnight, and it had begun to snow. Luckily, the building overhead covered the alleyway from becoming one huge snowdrift but they still didn't keep the cold out.  
  
By now, Numair had memorized every single nail in the crates...there were sixty-two in each. He was just about to start counting the number of rocks on the opposite wall just to keep his mind busy but his eyelids began to droop and he found that it was becoming very hard to stay awake. He hadn't slept in two days and just sitting there wasn't helping. But he couldn't fall asleep for two reasons; the first being that his friends needed him and if he fell asleep, it could cost them their lives, and two, if he did, he would probably freeze to death if the current weather patterns continued as they were.  
  
He sighed and rested his head on one of the crates, trying to keep himself awake.  
  
***Inside...***  
  
They all huddled closer together in the darkness. Alex felt around for a candle but finding nothing, quickly pulled his hand back from the darkness, not wanting something to happen to it while he couldn't see. Alanna sighed, "This is ridiculous!" George felt her lift her hand into the air and the room was lit by a soft purple glow coming from Alanna's hands.  
  
Tom gazed around, extremely curious about what was going to happen. The room was square, with no windows and only one way out, a set of large, ebony stairs that led up to what he assumed was a second floor. Along the walls of the room were tables and chairs, mirrors and portraits, and a huge, unlit fireplace that was looming on the wall opposite of the stairs, a coat of arms complete with crossed swords hanging above it like a silent sentinel. The portraits on the walls were of women and men in the same dress that they themselves were dressed in, but the portrait's eyes seemed to follow him as he paced down the room.  
  
A shiver ran down Tom's spine and he returned to the group, which had moved itself to the center of the room...the dead center. Tom swore at himself, why had he used that word? Kel spied the coat of arms, "Ha! At least we have weapons this time!" She ran over to the wall and loosened a sword from the decorations, swung it around a couple times and frowned, "Never mind...this cruddy thing is fake. It's made of...something light, but not wood..."  
  
Alex nodded, "Probably plastic...Hello! What do we have here?" He walked over to one of the tables and picked up two things that were resting on top of it. He walked back to the group and handed one of the things to Tom, "That sword may have been plastic, but this sure seems real enough..."  
  
Tom held it up, "A pistol?! Please Alex, you don't actually expect me to use this do you?"  
  
George stepped forward, a curious look growing on the ex-thief's face, "A what?"  
  
"A pistol." Tom handed George his, "Here, take it. I don't want to be responsible for it..."  
  
George peered at the object in his hands, "It doesn't seem dangerous..." His finger slipped to the trigger and an explosion rang through the house, causing everyone to jump. George gulped, "I stand corrected..." Now there was a bullet sized hole right where one of the men in the portraits left eye used to be.  
  
Alex patted George on the shoulder, "Nice shot..."  
  
Tom rolled his eyes and was just about to point out that they should watch where they are aiming their weapons when he stopped dead in his tracks (He swore at himself again, he had to say "dead" again, didn't he?). A soft moaning had drifted down the stairs and was slowly growing louder. Owen made an almost inaudible whimpering sound and slipped behind Kel who had taken a step forward. A soft pale blue glow appeared at the top of the stairs and Alanna heard Alex swear softly. A woman had appeared, her head and most of her body covered in a long, lacy veil and she began to walk, no...float down the stairs. She was wearing a long, loose, silky dress that almost seemed to be some sort of nightgown and she herself was the thing glowing.  
  
Kel leaned over to Tom as she grew closer and whispered, "Does she have the Gift?"  
  
"No, she glowing because she's dead..."  
  
Owen's eyes grew wider (if that was at all possible) and the woman grew closer still. She stopped when she was at the third step from the bottom and slowly turned her head as if looking at all of them. Suddenly, a high pitched scream ripped through the still air and the woman flew straight at the group, went through them and disappeared.  
  
No one said anything for a few moments. They had all (yes, including Alanna) had gone deathly pale. The lioness slowly turned around and stared back at where the woman should have been, "...Mother goddess...was that your ghost Alex...?"  
  
Alex shook himself awake, "One of them..."  
  
Owen turned to him, "You mean there's more of those things!"  
  
"I'm afraid so..."  
  
They all jumped as a ringing filled the room. Tom whipped around and stared at Alex, "Is that a...telephone?"  
  
Alex nodded and turned to look at the table where he had found the pistols. There, sitting exactly where the guns had been, was an old telephone. He turned to look back at Tom, "That wasn't there before..."  
  
Tom squared his shoulder and walked over to the phone and picked up the receiver, "Um...hello?"  
  
"Seven days..." Tom dropped the receiver as if it had burned him and spun around to face Alex who's face was now ashy white. He had heard it too.  
  
Alex turned around and called out, "Hey Trycos! You're mixing your stories up!! Oh man..."  
  
George turned to Tom, who was still staring at the phone, "What does that mean, 'seven days'?"  
  
"Trust me...you don't want to know..."  
  
"Okay..."Alex ran his fingers through his hair nervously, "All right, we'll be all right if we just remember that none of this is real..." he began to pace, "None of this is real and there are no such things as ghosts or curses on a non-existent video tape..."  
  
Kel cast a glance at Alanna who shrugged.  
  
Alex continued, "The first thing we should probably do is...look around this place for some kind of exit, but we should stay together! Always stay together..."  
  
Alanna stepped up next to Alex, "Are you sure you aren't over reacting a bit?"  
  
"Listen, if you had seen The Ring you would be a little nervous too all right!"  
  
Owen stared around nervously and gaped in horror at the walls. He tugged on Kel's sleeve, "Kel...?"  
  
"What is it Owen?!"  
  
"The walls...are moving..."  
  
"What?!" They sun around to face the walls and sure enough, they were slowly closing in on them.  
  
They raced out of the room and up the stairs as fast as their legs could take them, up to a long, deserted hallway lined with heavy wooden doors. Alex stopped at the first one and nervously glanced back at the others who were gasping for breath, "All right...let's see what's behind door number one..."  
  
He winced and slowly creaked the door open, everyone else standing a good distance back. Alex finally turned his head and peered inside it and breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like an old bedroom with a large four poster bed and a large window with it's drapes closed. Alex stepped inside followed closely by Tom, Alanna, George, Kel, and Owen. The room was quickly filled with Alanna's purple glow and Alex walked over to the drapes, "Maybe we can jump out the window like we did the last time we were stuck in a house..."  
  
He quickly pulled the curtains back and swore. There was nothing behind them but a brick wall. The door of the bedroom swung shut by itself and another soft moaning entered the room. A soft blue glow came from the bed and a man materialized there, looking as if he was asleep. Suddenly, his eyes opened and he sat up in bed and looked right at the group. Alex jumped and pulled the trigger of his gun, shooting right through were the man's chest would have been. The ghost looked down at his body, looked back up at the group, then let out an ear-shattering shriek. The floor underneath them collapsed and they were all sent hurdling down into the darkness.  
  
***Meanwhile...***  
  
Phi woke up with a start. She was lying on her back in the middle of the room with the two couches in it. On either side of her were Devic and Esmond, both looking as if they were sleeping. She rubbed her head and slowly rose into a sitting position. What a jump...After she leapt off the edge of the boat, she had swum down into the water and grabbed Devic's hand. Unfortunately, the Kraken didn't let go and they were both pulled down into the ocean and had drowned. She felt her clothes...they were still wet, in fact, there was a large puddle of water under her, Devic, and Esmond and they looked completely soaked too.  
  
She slowly stood up. That meant that Esmond probably "died" too and this is where you came back to afterwards. She gazed around the room. There, standing right next to the door, was Trycos. His eyes were closed though, and he seemed to be concentrating very hard although he was smiling maliciously. But where was everyone else? She paused for a moment, thinking that she just heard a sound, like a scream. Phi spun around but no one else was really awake.  
  
She shook her head and turned her attention back to Trycos. Maybe she could stop him while he was distracted. She walked around him cautiously. He didn't seem to be very strong...she would probably be able to take him by herself. Phi walked back into the middle of the room, and prepared herself. I hope this works! She ran forward and leapt at Trycos, only to be shot back all the way to the opposite wall.  
  
Phi collapsed into a heap, gasping for breath after having all the wind knocked out of her. What was going on? It was like he had some sort of force field thing around him. She slammed her fist onto the ground and leaned her head back against the wall. That had been her only real chance of helping the others. She closed her eyes and wondered to herself what they were doing now.  
  
***Back in the vision-thingy***  
  
Kel moaned and sat up, her whole body aching from the tumble they had just took. It seemed like they had fallen at least four floors down, but that wasn't possible because they would all be dead...wouldn't they? She struggled with her multiple skirts and finally made it back onto her feet. She stumbled around blindly in the darkness for a while (Alanna had probably been knocked unconscious and her Gift had gone out) before her foot came in contact with something soft.  
  
She bent down. It was a person. She shook them gently by the shoulders and it let out a soft groan and sat up. It was Owen! "Kel, is that you?"  
  
"Yes, do you know where any one else is?"  
  
She heard him shake his head, " I can't see a thing! We should probably find Alanna so that we can have some light again..."  
  
They heard a sound from about four feet away, like fabric brushing against stone. They heard someone swear lightly and Kel grinned, "George? Is that you over there?"  
  
The noises stopped, "Ya, it's me. Gods, what a drop...I think I landed on that pistol...Kel, who else is with you over there?"  
  
"Owen, but we don't know where anyone else is..."  
  
The three turned as they heard a sound moving behind them and Alanna's clearly annoyed voice rang out in the silence, "When I get my hands on Trycos I'll..."her voice trailed off, obviously not wanting Trycos to hear what she had in store for him.  
  
Kel stood back up, "Alanna, would you mind giving us a little light to work by?"  
  
The darkness was once again lit by a light purple glow. They were in a huge, cavernous room, filled with pillars at least twenty feet high and the room itself was long and skinny. The walls were lined with rectangular crevices, but Alanna's Gift wasn't able to reach far enough so they couldn't see what was inside them.  
  
Owen looked around and said anxiously, "Where are Tom and Alex?"  
  
Kel helped him onto his feet and peered around, "I do not know, I can not see them anywhere..."  
  
George rose easily to his feet then went over to give his wife a hand up, "They should have known better than to wander off like that, I mean leaving us all alone in one of their memories...Although this place doesn't look as odd as that house did..."  
  
Alanna gazed around, her eyes narrowed and alert with suspicion, "I do not know about this George...it looks a little like a..."  
  
Owen had wandered curiously over to the rectangular crevices in one of the walls and let out a mix between a squeak and a gasp, then flung himself back, "There's a...a skeleton in there!"  
  
Alanna looked somewhat pleased with herself for being right, "It looks a little like a catacomb..."  
  
Kel walked over back to the Lioness, pulling Owen along with her, "Are you saying that we are in the same room as about a hundred dead people in one of Alex's memories that contains ghosts?"  
  
"Looks like it, doesn't it?"  
  
Kel was about to respond, but became silent as the four heard footsteps begin to echo through the long hall. George pulled out his gun and aimed it into the darkness. The footsteps grew closer and George fired three shots into the shadows. Someone shouted, "Damn it George, it's us!"  
  
Alanna yanked her husband's hand down, "That's enough. I think that is Tom and Alex!"  
  
And sure enough, the two came walking quickly into the light, looking extremely set off, "Imagine, we survive the fall only to get shot by someone who's supposed to be on our side...Good thing you haven't got the hang of that thing George, or we would be dead..."  
  
"Ya, sorry 'bout that mates, but being trapped in a room filled with dead people doesn't do much for a man's nerves..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"These holes are filled with skeletons..."  
  
"That can't be good..."  
  
Trycos's voice appeared again, but this time instead of sounding pompous like usual he sounded a little perturbed, "It seems that one of your little friends that passed to the other side wants to get my attention...Fine, if they want it so bad, they can have it..."  
  
***Phi's View***  
  
She was still sitting against the wall when suddenly Trycos's eyes snapped open and he faced her. She felt a strange sensation flowing through her body and there was a brilliant flash of bluish light.  
  
***Back in the haunted house***  
  
Alex turned, confused, to Tom, "What does he mean by that?"  
  
"I don't ...Whoa!"  
  
There was a bright flash of light that made everyone shield their eyes and something appeared right in the middle of the group. Alex uncovered his eyes and stared dumbstruck at the figure hovering above the ground, "Phi...?"  
  
Phi looked down at her body. She was still in her sailing outfit but it was all see-through and glowy. She spun around, gazing, amazed, at the spot where her feet should have been. She looked back up at her brother and Alex, "I'm a ghost!"  
  
A/N: Hehe...I have been wanting to make someone a ghost...don't worry, I'm going to end this scene soon...I just ran out of time to finish it up in this chapter... 


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: OK, um...I'm not going to be here for about a week. I'm going on a trip that is quite unavoidable at this stage of the game and I apologize. Just remember that I will probably be wanting to write my story down just as much as you want to read it. (I forget things quickly you see, and if I don't write them down, sometimes they can disappear completely from my mind altogether.)  
  
***Inside the vision***  
  
Owen blinked several times before saying, "What happened to you Phi?"  
  
"I dunno...I was back in the room with Devic and Esmond and I tried to jump Trycos but he threw me against the wall and then I just appeared here!" Phi floated curiously around the room, surveying their costumes, "And where exactly would here be?"  
  
Tom grinned, "In an underground catacomb in the early twentieth century."  
  
"Sounds like you all have been having fun...wait a minute..."Phi glided over to one of the niches in the wall, "Aren't catacombs supposed to have dead people in them?"  
  
"Yes, and there are. Look inside."  
  
Phi turned back around with a worried expression on her transparent face, "No there isn't..."  
  
Owen ran over to her and peered inside, "But there was one here a minute ago! I would have sworn there was..." He turned back around and walked back to Kel, Alanna, and George, "What do you think happened to it?"  
  
Alanna grimaced, "I do not know, but I suggest that we find a way out of this nightmare and back to the real world..."  
  
Phi frowned and turned back to the niche. Suddenly a rotted hand reached out from inside it and grabbed at her shirt. She screamed and reeled back, momentarily forgetting that she was a ghost and the hand would have gone right through her anyway. Everyone spun around and watched in horror as a skeleton complete with rotting flesh and bandages crawled out of the shadows of the hole and slowly stepped towards them. George grabbed Alanna's hand, which she was just about to use to try and blast the zombie with, "Come on!"  
  
They took off down the hallway, their footsteps echoing through the rock caverns. Phi finally got the point that she could actually float so she took off into the air and spun around to watch more of the zombie things appear out of the other grave holes and join the first one. She let out a small shriek and took after the others who were already about thirty feet ahead of her.  
  
George skidded to a halt as they finally came to the end of the catacombs, and they all turned around to watch the zombies come closer. Alex fired off about ten bullets (one passed straight through Phi, who glared evilly at him before gliding down to stand next to Tom and Kel. Kel turned to her, "So after we...die...we go back to the room?"  
  
"Yep..."  
  
Kel turned around to face Alanna, "I think I found our way back..."  
  
"Are you suggesting that we kill ourselves?!"  
  
"It is either that or be killed by them!" She pointed at the undead mob that was growing ever closer.  
  
"Fine! How?"  
  
Alex turned around slowly to face Phi, "Do you think that you could kill us?"  
  
She stared at him like he was insane, "What?! I'm not gonna kill you!"  
  
"But in the movie I watched, the one with the ghosts...people get killed if the ghosts enter their bodies. They grab their souls and fly back out again."  
  
"Listen, I'm kinda new to this whole ghost thing, I don't know if I can..."  
  
"But what I'm thinking is that it is the only painless way to get out for us!"  
  
Phi glanced at Tom for help but he just shrugged, "He's probably right Phi...other wise, we could always shoot ourselves or something, but that would probably hurt a lot more..."  
  
Phi spun around to look at everybody but no one seemed to be against the idea, although Owen did look a bit nervous. She sighed and turned back to face Alex, "Fine...have it your way...here goes nothing!" She sort of dived into his body and was almost able to swim around in it until something inside him caught his eye. She reached out for it, and as her fingers touched it, she was thrown from his body and went flying, her hand holding onto Alex's. Only it wasn't Alex, it was just a mass of glowing...stuff. It vanished from out of her hands and she watched as Alex's body slumped to the ground and vanished too.  
  
Tom looked up at her, looking shocked, "I guess you did it..."  
  
"But what did I do...?"  
  
Alanna shrugged it off like it was no big deal, "That glowing thing you were holding was his soul, or probably what it looked like in the 'movie' he saw...that was actually very interesting..."  
  
"All right!" George stepped forward, "Less talking, more killing!"  
  
Phi sighed miserably and dived into his bodies. It wasn't that she felt anything physically while pulling out their souls, it was just the whole thing and the idea that she was actually killing people that made her stomach churn. After she "killed" George, she went on to do Alanna, then Owen, then Kel. Finally it was her brother's turn. The zombies were only a couple meters away and Phi was getting nervous, "Tom what am I supposed to do after your gone?"  
  
"You should find a way to kill yourself or get killed so you can come back..."  
  
"Tom, I'm already dead!"  
  
His face fell, "Your right...well, maybe once I'm gone then you'll come back too..."  
  
"I hope so..." She rose back into the air and dove into his chest. She felt him twitch a little. It must feel weird having someone else be in your body...no wonder Alex got so scared of this movie when he was a little kid...She found Tom's soul just as the first zombie got a foot away from them and quickly rushed out with his soul in her hand. She watched him die and then smiled with relief as the scenery, including the attacking army of the living dead, disappeared and a now familiar blacking out sensation over took her and she passed out.  
  
***Minutes later***  
  
Kel sat up and shook her head. She opened her eyes and quickly stood up. Trycos was gone. She grinned. He was probably just upset that they had found a way out of his little "game". The others were beginning to stir and she realized with relief that she was back in her old clothes again. Kel patted her dagger fondly and gave Alanna a hand up.  
  
The Lioness looked around, "Well it seems that our host has escaped, the coward. When I get my hands on him I will make him wish he had never been born...how dare he do these kinds of things to people?"  
  
George lurched into a standing position, "Easy Alanna...wait until you see him before you start to yell at him..."  
  
Owen and Devic had woken up, but decided to remain sitting just because they had nothing better to do, and as soon as he woke up, Esmond began to tell Kel what had happened after he went over the edge because she was very curious. Tom stretched and for some reason looked quite pleased with himself as if he had just discovered something amazing, and Alex moved over to sit next to Phi as she woke up.  
  
Alanna noticed Tom's expression and walked curiously over to him, "What is making you so happy Tom?"  
  
"Trycos no longer will be able to control us...we have found away around it, without going insane first!" Alanna gave him a strange look so he began to explain, "The reason why the only people who make it out of here are people that are insane is because most people only manage to kill themselves after they loose their mind because when they were sane, they believed that if they were killed, they would stay dead forever. What I am thinking is, the reason that none of us has yet to go insane is because we know that death isn't real. However, if you didn't know that and were faced with the same situations that we were it would make everything a lot more frightening and therefore make you go insane faster."  
  
"I think I understand what you are saying...because we know that nothing here is real, it doesn't effect us as much as it would someone who thought it was all true..."  
  
"That's my theory anyway...but I suspect that Trycos really dug his own grave when he showed off to Alex, Devic, Phi, and me by killing Phi soon after she and Devic got here. After she got better anyway, we all realized right away that it was all an illusion."  
  
Phi grinned, happy to think that Trycos had caused his own demise and George turned back to Tom, "That still doesn't help us with our original plan which is to get you out of here..."  
  
Alex, who had put his arm around Phi, looked up at Alanna, George, Kel, Owen, and Esmond, "That is why you all came in here, to get us out?"  
  
Esmond grinned, "Well don't look so surprised about it Alex! We were not going to let all of you get kidnapped and leave it at that!"  
  
Devic turned around and glanced smugly back at him, "I told him you were looking for us, but he had his doubts..."  
  
Esmond shook his head and smiled, then turned back to the others to discuss how they would manage to get out of Trycos's grasp.  
  
A/N: Sorry that was so incredibly short, but I really need to get going...urgent business you see...gotta go! 


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Yay! I'm back, I'm back, I'm back! And while I've been gone it seems that ff.net has changed my pen name to "shadow40" instead of "shadow"...humph...how rude...Since I've been out so long let's get straight back to business, shall we?  
  
***Numair's View***  
  
The mage was fiddling with the hems of his robes when he felt a slight wave flowing through his magic. He whipped his head up and stared at the door, after making sure that his entire body was behind the crates, watching anxiously as a man emerged from the wall. It was the man from before, Trycos! Numair held his breath as the kidnapper walked by storming down the street, and could have sworn that his heart had stopped for a moment when the young man turned in his direction and glared.  
  
He let out a small sigh as Trycos turned the corner and stepped back up to the wall. Now that he was sure Trycos wasn't in the room or in the alleyway, this would be a perfect time to go in there and get his friends out. Numair took another quick glance around the alley, found it to be deserted, and stepped in through the wall.  
  
***Trycos's View***  
  
He scowled and walked sullenly down the middle of the darkened street. The sun was just about to come out and the world was covered in a hazy morning mist, the freshly fallen snow beginning to glisten in the dawning light. Trycos's scowl deepened, it was all so disgusting. If he had his way, night would be continuous and there wouldn't be such a thing as an early morning. And how dare those brats that he had taken used his own weapon against him like that?! His temper began to rise and he stopped himself and sat down on a bench outside a storefront to think. His head had begun to hurt and a dull, pounding headache was beginning to surface. Never in all his years of living had anyone ever killed themselves purposefully like that when they were completely sane, it didn't make sense why this group in particular wasn't responding the way everyone else had always done. He wanted to see pain and suffering, not just death!  
  
He was about to continue to silently rant to himself when he felt a tingle run through his body. Someone had just passed through his doorway. A grin replaced his scowl and his brain began to whir and return back to it's normal self. It must be that idiot mage that had been waiting outside in his alley for the last ten hours or so. If he could get there on time, none of them would ever have a chance. The room that they were in was connected directly into his mind and his Gift and he knew what everyone was thinking and doing. It was actually a very useful place. Not only could he drive people insane in it, but the time differences that he was able to control had allowed him to stay young and grant him a sort of immortality. Unlike what that retired old thief thought, Trycos was actually around much longer than just when he was the King of Thieves...In fact, about a week ago he had just celebrated his 102 birthday.  
  
Trycos stood up and began to saunter happily back to his hideout...this was going to be fun...  
  
***Back in the room***  
  
The large group inside the room jumped about a foot in the air when the door sung open and Numair stuck his head through, "Thank the gods you are all all right! I was starting to worry after midnight passed..."  
  
Alanna tired to regain her composure, "Well it is about time Numair! We were beginning to think that you were never going to get here!"  
  
George rolled his eyes and walked over to the mage, "What a warm person she is...let's get out of here before that lunatic gets back..."  
  
Esmond, Kel, and Owen nodded and followed Tom, Devic, George, and Alanna out through the door. Alex gave Phi a hand up and the two quickly followed the rest of their friends.  
  
***  
  
Numair turned around and peered through the cracked doorway into to alley...it looked clear. He motioned for the others to follow him and slowly creaked the door the rest of the way open and top-toed out. He looked back and watched as George, Alanna, Tom, Devic, Esmond, Owen, Kel, Phi, and Alex walked carefully back into the real world after him, and wasn't able to turn around until it was too late. Trycos emerged triumphantly from around the corner of the street, "Ha! You may have allowed them to escape, but you shall fall in their place!"  
  
A ripple of magic flew threw the air and hit Numair square in the chest, throwing him back against the wall. George, who was standing right next to him, stumbled back, then turned to glare at Trycos, "You @#$@%$! What did you do to him?!"  
  
"I'm actually not sure, but what ever it was, I hope it hurt..." The man turned on his heels and speed away down the alley before Alanna could tear him apart.  
  
Tom ran over to the mage, who was gasping for breath, "Oh my god Numair? What happened?"  
  
The mage struggled to a sitting position and leaned his body against the wall, "...not...sure..." He winced and grabbed at his side, "get...back...to...palace..."  
  
Kel and Esmond lifted him up and between them began to carry him back to the Palace, "Not without you...besides, it looked like Trycos is finished with us..."  
  
Numair grimaced and gasped again, "For now..."  
  
The group slowly made there way out of the alley and onto the main road. The color was beginning to drain out of the mages face and they were forced to set him down again. Phi turned to her brother, "Tom! There's no way he'll make it back there like this!"  
  
"I know!" Tom began to pace around the room. He had to know something from working in the hospital with his dad that would help them...but he didn't know how to treat or even deal with magical injuries!  
  
Kel wiped a few drops of sweat of her brow, "Maybe if we had an easier way to carry him, we wouldn't be having so much trouble..."  
  
Alanna leapt to her feet and ran over to a shop front. She stopped and banged on the door. George winced as a large man in his sleeping clothes opened the door and glared down at the Lioness, "What do you want?"  
  
Alanna stared right back and said in a straight and determined voice, "I wanted to know if you had a spare bed sheet that we could borrow..."  
  
The man narrowed his eyes, then turned back into the house. A few moments later, he trudged back holding a small sheet, "There, no be gone with you all before I call the guards on you..."  
  
Alanna nodded politely and walked back over to the group, "All right, now all we need is two long sticks..."  
  
Devic looked around and saw two brooms sitting outside of another shop window, "Will these do?"  
  
"They will do fine..." With that, Alanna went about making a sort of stretcher by tying the sheet onto the two sticks after breaking the broom parts off of them. "There you go..." She handed it to Kel and Esmond, "That should help a little."  
  
They nodded appreciatively and pulled Numair onto the stretcher and lifted him up. Surprisingly, the contraption held and in about fifteen more minutes they were all sitting around a bed inside the castle, watching as Daine bustled nervously around the room, making sure that Numair was all right.  
  
The mage looked at Daine and smiled weakly, "Stop fussing, I will be all right..."  
  
"How can you say that?! You don't even know what that...that man did to you! Don't even think about getting up! You're not moving until Duke Baird says you've healed, and he has yet to even to discover why you're injured!" Daine took a deep breath and paused at the look Numair gave her, "I don't want you hurting yourself again Numair!"  
  
The mage sighed, "...Fine, I will not move..."  
  
She nodded happily and turned to the rest of the group, "Thank you for taking him back...I'm glad to see that you are all all right too...we were getting worried about you. Oh, that reminds me. Kel, Dom was asking for you and asked me to tell you when you got back that he had to go on a short trip that should only take a few days...And you must all be exhausted! Why don't you freshen up and get something to eat...Jonathan will also want to know you're back. He sounded quite frustrated last night after the meeting..."  
  
Alanna sighed, "You mean they still have not reached an agreement?"  
  
The wild mage shook her head, "You know, I'm starting to wonder if they ever will? The yelling is even starting to get worse...the birds are refusing to land anywhere near the conference room because of the noise..."  
  
She waved them good-night and Alanna turned down the hallway back towards the conference room, "I had better be getting back..."  
  
George shrugged and followed his wife, his hands stuck deep in his pockets, "I'll come to... It sounds like things are finally getting interesting..."  
  
They waved the two good-bye then Kel, Esmond, Owen, Devic, Alex, Tom, and Phi began to stroll back down the hallway towards their rooms. Alex grinned, "It sure feels good to be back..."  
  
Tom sighed, "That's good, because we might be here for a while..."  
  
Phi turned to Tom, "What do you mean? It's obvious that Trycos was the one who sent the Immortal into our world, there's no reason why we should stay anymore!"  
  
Alex nodded, "Besides, our parents are probably gonna get worried again..."  
  
Devic turned to Tom, "Is there something else that needs to be fixed?"  
  
"Yes..."  
  
Kel stopped walking and folded her arms over her chest, "Well, what is it?"  
  
Tom exhaled slowly, "There is only one person who can open the portal to our world, and he is stuck in a bed for who knows how long..."  
  
There was a long period of silence before Esmond broke in. His voice was troubled, but there was a thoughtful expression on his face, "That is where you are wrong Tom. There is someone else who can both open the portal and cure Numair..."  
  
"Who?"  
  
"...Trycos..."  
  
A/N: Ooooo...what to do, what to do...what does one do when the only one that can help you is your greatest enemy? 


	17. Chapter 17

***Tom, Phi, and Alex's View***  
  
After realizing that they needed Trycos's help to get back to their own world, the three bid Kel, Esmond, and Owen good-night and went back to their rooms to plan their next course of action...only they weren't having much luck in deciding what to do next.  
  
Tom rubbed his forehead, "So, what do we do now?" He and Alex were sitting on his bed while Phi was sitting in a chair next to the window in the boys' room.  
  
Alex shook his head, "I don't know...we can't get caught again, and the next time he sees us, he'll probably be so pissed off that he'll kill us right on the spot..."  
  
Phi nodded, "And I already died twice already on this trip so let's find a better way..."  
  
"Well," Tom looked thoughtful and his brows were furrowed, "...We could...write him a letter..."  
  
Phi turned to her brother with raised eyebrows, "That's crazy!"  
  
"Well do you have a better idea?!"  
  
"I didn't say it was a bad idea, I just said it was crazy! But I like it...let's do it."  
  
Tom turned to Alex who had flopped down on the bed with his hands crossed under his head, "Do you have another idea?"  
  
"Um...nope. I wish I did though. I'm not sure that anyone will be able to deliver a message to a villain for us, not to mention the chances of him responding positively to it..."  
  
Phi sighed, "Has anyone ever tried something like this before?"  
  
"No, but maybe that means it will work. Besides as long as we are in Tortall, I can't think of any other way to get in contact with somebody without meeting them face to face..."  
  
"I guess you're right...sort of."  
  
Alex closed his eyes, "So...who's gonna write it?"  
  
Phi stared at Tom who rolled his eyes and exhaled deeply, "Fine, whatever, I'll write a letter to the insane guy...Can someone hand me a quill?"  
  
***Numair's View***  
  
The mage was resting in his bed staring blankly at his ceiling. It was only a few hours after his friends had brought him back and he was already bored...not a good thing. He sighed and tried to roll over but gave up after a pain shot up his side. Duke Baird was still working on an antidote for whatever was ailing him, and he would be helping the healer if it was not he himself that was the injured one. And Daine. Sometimes she could be such a pain. But she was probably just trying to look out for his well being...He scowled. He hated to be bed-ridden. It didn't suit him at all. Another thought popped into his head. As long as he was stuck in his bedroom, there was no way that he would be able to cast the spell that would enable Tom, Alex, and Phi to get back to their own world. Unless they found another way...He moaned and rolled over. Another white-hot streak of pain shot up his side and he swore under his breath.  
  
***Tom, Alex, and Phi's View***  
  
Tom tossed restlessly in his bed. It had been an hour since they had decided to send Trycos a letter and something was tugging at the back of Tom's mind, except he didn't know what it was. The only thing that he did know was that it was keeping him awake, and he hated having insomnia. He went over the idea and besides it being totally insane and that it had about a 25% chance of working, he couldn't see anything else that was wrong with it. Besides, he figured that to contact an insane man, you need an insane way of doing so.  
  
He turned over and stared at Alex, because he needed something to look at and saw that his friend was still wide awake and lying on his stomach, resting his chin on his pillow. Tom blinked and whispered, "Alex? Alex, are you awake?"  
  
"...Wha? Oh, ya, I'm awake, I hope I didn't wake you up..."  
  
"Naw, I just can't sleep...What about you?"  
  
"Same here...Why can't you sleep?"  
  
"I dunno. I suppose it's our plan about Trycos...you?" Alex shifted uncomfortably in his bed sheets and Tom knew what was bothering him, "I seriously don't mind...It could be worse I suppose..."  
  
Alex grinned slightly and turned his head so that he was facing Tom, "Ya, I guess it could be, but not much...If I had a little sister and you fell in love with her, I would expect that I would be a little more than uncomfortable when I was around them..."  
  
"Well, she could have falling in love with someone else who is worse than you. Besides, I'm not all that surprised. In our senior year, you started to hang out with her almost as much as you did with me! I wondered if you were falling for her..."  
  
"Well, now ya know..."  
  
There was a almost uncomfortable silence between them before Tom sighed and rolled back over to face the other way, "Besides, she really likes you too...I can tell..."  
  
***  
  
The next morning the three went down to see what kind of progress Duke Baird had made on a cure for Numair's illness, or whatever it was, but also to ask him a few questions concerning Tortall's mail system...  
  
Tom knocked politely on the infirmary door and waited until the Duke opened it and greeted them before stepping inside, "Good morning. We just came down to ask how Numair's cure is coming along."  
  
The Duke exhaled deeply before motioning them over to an open notebook and several loose papers that were scattered seemingly randomly on his desk in the corner of the room, "Not well I am afraid. Without knowing what is ailing Master Numair besides that fact that he feels extreme pain whenever he moves is not a very good start to making a cure. I have frankly never seen anything quite like it before. So far, he has shown no other symptoms of any sort that would help us to better pinpoint the sickness but I'm beginning to think that this 'illness' is really just a curse that this Trycos fellow made up. In that case, I have a lot of work to do..."  
  
Tom, who seemed genuinely interested in what the Duke had to say kept nodding and frowning as the Duke went on to explain the illness itself, how it seemed to start, how it effects the body, and it's reaction to several tests that the Duke had already preformed. Alex inched backwards to stand next to Phi who was staring at several surprisingly actuate drawing of the human body, "I see you weren't very interested in their conversation either..."  
  
"No..." Phi turned to looked up at him and grinned, "Why are you looking at me like that?"  
  
"Like how?"  
  
"I dunno, but it makes me feel funny..." Alex shrugged and turned to gaze at the pictures instead of at Phi, "...So what were you and Tom talking about last night?"  
  
Alex's brain froze. There was no way that he was going to tell her that they had been talking about their relationship last night, "I...I dunno...things..."  
  
"What kind of things?"  
  
His brain froze again. Why did women always have to be so nosey? "Um...you know...Trycos and...stuff...What were you doing up at that time anyway?"  
  
"Oh I don't know" She grinned at him, "...Things..."  
  
Alex sighed and walked back over to Tom. He hated how she always seemed to know things no matter how much he didn't want her to. He walked over just in time to hear Tom start to ask the Duke about mail.  
  
Tom was going over some of the Duke's notes and casually asked, "So, have you tried sending some of these notes out to other healers? Maybe they can help you..."  
  
"No...I need all of them here, besides, most of the greatest healers are in this city already!"  
  
"You mean you couldn't send these to them if they were in the city?"  
  
"Of course you could! It would be quite simple in fact, but as I said before, I need all of these papers here for my own research and I do not have any copies..."  
  
"If you were to send something, how would you go about doing that?"  
  
The Duke's eyes narrowed suspiciously but his eyes glittered with knowing humor, "Tom, you should know by now that I have raised a son and have gotten wise to every trick that you could possibly think of pulling on me...believe me, once you have dealt with Neal, the rest of you boys seem easy..."  
  
"Don't worry! I wasn't going to do anything! I was just curious, that's all..."  
  
"...Fine, but if I find one of my papers missing, I think I will have a pretty good idea of who to blame for their disappearances...If you were to send a letter to another person in the city, all you would have to do is address the envelope with the receivers name and address and call on a messenger, any page will do. Then all you have to do is give the letter to the messenger, tip him, and he will deliver it for you."  
  
"And what if you didn't know the address?"  
  
"I suppose...I suppose you would give the delivery boy an especially large tip, inform him of the problem, and then hope that he finds the right person that you intended the letter for."  
  
"Hmm...okay...thank you very much! We will return to see how the cure is coming along. If you need ay help, just let me know and I'll be here!"  
  
The Duke nodded and Tom, Alex, and Phi trudged back upstairs to write a letter. When they got back to their rooms, Tom pulled the chair by the widow over to the desk, sat down in it and took out a quill and a small sheet of paper. He thought for a moment, then began to write. After about forty-five minutes and several more pieces of paper, Tom leaned back in his chair and handed the letter over to Phi and Alex who were sitting on the bed.  
  
The letter was as follows:  
  
Trycos~  
  
I am somewhat sorry to inform you that after all that you did to us and our friends, we now find ourselves in need of your assistance. Although I am sure that you wish to have nothing more to do with us and are feeling that would much rather kill us than help us, I assure you that we could probably come up with some agreement that would be able to satisfy all of our needs. Nothing too outrageous mind you, and something that we ourselves could provide. I am afraid that we have yet to inform the rest of our companions of our current situation and do not expect that they will be willing to go along with any type of bargain making on our parts so we would appreciate it if you keep whatever deal we make, if we ever make one up at all, a secret. Please send us a reply.  
  
~Thomas, Alexander, and Phiona  
  
Phi looked up from the letter, "A bargain? What is that all about?"  
  
"Well, I just thought that Trycos would not be willing to be helping us unless he too was able to gain something, so I offered a bargain..."  
  
Alex tossed Tom the letter, "...Ya, but who knows what that guy will come up with..."  
  
Tom shrugged and stood up, "I'm going to go find someone to give this letter to before I change my mind about the whole idea..."  
  
Phi rolled her eyes and Alex nodded and watched as he left the room and softly closed the door behind him.  
  
Tom roamed down the halls until he reached what he remembered to be the pages library. It was a separate, smaller library from the main one, but he had heard that a lot of pages hanging around in it practically 24/7. He gently opened the door and sure enough there were about twenty pages and squires hanging around, doing what looked like schoolwork around large wooden tables. He as busy gazing around and was startled when someone called out his name from behind, "Tom? What are you doing here?" He turned quickly to see Devic and a younger boy carrying stacks of books into the room.  
  
"Well, actually, I needed a letter delivered and I was told that a page would be able to do it for me..."  
  
Devic looked thoughtful, then smiled. He turned to the younger boy and took the stack of books that he was carrying, "This is Will, he is my cousin, and he will be glad to deliver your message, won't you Will? We were just returning some old books anyway..."  
  
Will gave Devic a glare, took the letter and walked out of the room after Tom handed him a very large tip. Devic glanced at the coin Tom gave Will and whistled as the boy walked quickly out of the room, "Must not have an address...Who was that to anyway?"  
  
"It's not really that important...Here, let me help you with some of those books..."  
  
***Trycos's View***  
  
Trycos was milling around in his room, unsettled by the turn the series of recent events had taken. He flopped down into a large easy chair that materialized out of the cloudy whiteness and he began to stare into the vastness of his "realm". Maybe he was loosing his touch. Maybe he just didn't have what it takes anymore to drive a man insane. It used to be so easy for him...In fact, as long as he could remember he had been doing it. First it was his father, then his mother, who in the end committed suicide to free herself of his torture, next came his cousins and acquaintances, and then he had begun to pull random people off the street. He sighed and leaned his head back over the arm of the chair. No that couldn't be it...It was probably just the people who he had decided to drive insane this time.  
  
He was about to conjure himself up a nice beach side to walk along to calm his nerves when a slight tickle ran through the back of his mind. He smiled. That could only mean one thing, that someone was looking for him. He stood up and walked out the wooden door with a slight spring in his step, happy to be having his mind distracted for him without having to plot out anything first.  
  
He walked out of his alleyway, remembering to close it off to the rest of the world so that they wouldn't start to use it as a trash dump, and strolled onto the main street looking casually around for the person who had said his name. Just the mention of it would send a tickle like the one he had just felt running through his mind and he would be able to investigate it.  
  
His smile widened as he felt another tickle, only this time it was stronger. He was getting closer to the one that said it, and there was only one person that was standing close enough to send out such a large signal. It was a small boy, who looked to be about nine or ten. Trycos's smile was replaced by a smirk, much too young to be out on his own. Then he noticed that made him very curious, an emotion that he hadn't experienced for a very long time. The boy was holding a letter that was addressed...to him. He quickly replaced his malicious grin with that of a normal passer-by and pretended to stroll in front of the boy and sure enough, the boy responded, "Excuse me, sir? Do you know who Trycos is?"  
  
"Indeed I do boy..."'  
  
Relief swept over the boy and he thought, 'Finally, I can get back to my schoolwork...' "I have a letter for him, could you make sure it gets to him?"  
  
"Of course I will!" Trycos smiled as the boy bowed quickly then hurried back off into the crowds. The man turned on his heels, examined the outside of the letter and walked nonchalantly back to his room.  
  
A/N: OK! I'll try to hurry and write the next chapter... 


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Thank you "blue flies" for reviewing my last chapter! It means a lot to me *sniff*! Anyways...here's another one!  
  
***Trycos's View***  
  
Holding the strange letter in his hands, he stepped over the threshold into his room, remembering to close the door firmly behind him, and sat gingerly down onto one of the couches that he had rematerialized. He turned the envelope over and over in his hands, trying to sense any sort of tracking spell or curse, but it was Gift free. Trycos frowned and leaned back in his seat, somewhat unnerved. Not by the letter itself, but by the fact that someone would actually want to be writing to him in such an odd manner.  
  
After about five minutes, he slowly opened the back of the envelope and pulled out the letter inside. A grin lit his face as he read it and when he was done he read it over a second time just to make sure that he understood the situation. They needed his help now? Hmm...What an...uncomfortable situation they must be in now...He leaned back in his chair again and closed his eyes, the letter still in his hands. But now, what should he do? Should he accept, or decline? And if he accepted, what would he ask for that they themselves could provide? His grin turned into a wide malicious smile. Yes, he would accept, if only to play with their minds again...maybe he would even go along with what they had in mind, just for laughs.  
  
A piece of parchment and a fancy feathered quill appeared on a small table next to the couch. He picked it up and began to write his response.  
  
***Phi, Alex, and Tom's View***  
  
It was in the middle of the afternoon on the second day that they were back at the Palace, and that morning they had written the letter, but all three of them were already anxious for a response. Tom shook his head, "This is ridiculous...even with our own modern post system it usually takes about two days for a letter to arrive..."  
  
Phi yawned and leaned her back up against Alex's who was staring blankly out the window. She had just woken up from a short nap but was still feeling tired, probably because of the time change from when they left Trycos's room and entered back into the real world, "Ya, well, maybe their mail is more efficient here, I mean it is hand delivered so maybe it gets there faster or something..."  
  
Alex just nodded, not really paying attention to what they were saying. Something outside had just caught his eye. It looked like a bird, maybe a leaf...no, definently a piece of paper and it was floating on a light breeze over the Palace wall, around the corner of the building and around the courtyard. He stared as the paper was swept up by a strange wind current and reeled back as it smacked right onto their window.  
  
Phi made a squeaking noise and grabbed onto Alex's arm to keep from falling off the bed and all the movement made Tom jump. Alex blinked at the strange paper and realized that it had something written on it in some form of fancy calligraphy: Thomas, Alexander, and Phiona. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" He walked over to the window, opened it, and carefully reached outside and grabbed the paper. Tom's eyebrows rose and Phi blinked at the envelope before muttering, "Showoff..."  
  
Alex opened the letter and read it out loud, "I would be most interested to hear what you have to say. I am sure we can manage to find...something...that you have that I would be interested in. I shall meet you in my alley tonight at midnight. Do not even think about bringing any guards...you already know that they will not do you any good... Trycos"  
  
Tom took the letter and frowned, "Well he certainly sounds cheery..."  
  
"And that's not a good thing..." Alex went back to sit on the bed and for some reason found himself wrapping his arms around Phi. Something about the way Trycos had written the line about finding something that he would be interested in had sent a cold shiver running down his spine and he began to wonder if the "something" was really a someone.  
  
Phi didn't seem to mind the comfort of someone's touch and snuggled back into him, "Tom, are we really going to do this? It seems to me that meeting an insane man in a dark alleyway is just asking for trouble..."  
  
Actually, Tom had been thinking along the same lines, but he didn't want Alex or Phi to know that he was worried. He felt that they needed him right now to be sure of himself, and if he expressed his worries to them, it might just make them even more uneasy, "Well, I'm almost positive that he won't try any of his mind control tricks on us again, seeing how well they worked last time, and with you and Alex there, we will probably be able to overpower him strength wise if he tries anything funny..." His voice trailed off as it often did when he was thinking hard about something.  
  
Alex pulled Phi a little closer, "What's the matter Tom? We all know that you are thinking about something so spit it out."  
  
Tom sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, a nervous habit that he had picked up from Alex, "I was just thinking that it would be a lot better if we were able to tell someone where we were going before we went through with this....you know, in case anything were to happen."  
  
"But there is no one we could tell! We couldn't tell Kel, Esmond, Owen, Alanna, or George because they would try to stop us and would probably succeed in doing so!"  
  
A thoughtful look appeared on Phi's face, "There is one person who we could make promise not to tell unless something happened, and we could trust him to keep the promise..."  
  
"And who would that be?"  
  
***  
  
Devic was sitting amidst a foot high stack of books when Phi ran over to him, "Devic, I need to ask you a favor!"  
  
"Umm...What is it?" Devic looked around and realized that most of the other pages were staring at him. He scowled at them and turned back to Phi, "Will it cause me to risk my life and or personal injury?"  
  
"Noo...not really..."  
  
"...Okay...So, what do you want me to do?"  
  
Phi glanced around anxiously and pulled up another chair next to Devic so that she could speak quietly and only he would hear, "Well, here's the thing. First you need to promise that you will not tell anyone what I am about to tell you unless...something happens."  
  
Devic's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the words "something happens", "Fine...I will not tell..."  
  
"Okay, um..." Phi glanced around one more time as if expecting to find one of the knights hovering over her shoulder listening to what she was saying, "We are going to go talk to Trycos again tonight..."  
  
Devic's jaw dropped and he slipped out of his chair, attracting even more strange looks. As he crawled back up onto the desk, he turned to Phi with a strange look in his eyes, "...You are going to what?!"  
  
Phi motioned for him to lower his voice, "We need to go and talk to Trycos tonight. We are going to meet him in his alley-way at midnight."  
  
"Well then I am going to go with you!"  
  
"No you're not Devic!"  
  
"Then why did you tell me?!"  
  
"Because if something happens then...someone will know where we are and will be able to come help..."  
  
Devic scowled, "How am I supposed to keep that a secret? Fine...I'll try...You three are suicidal, that's what you are..."  
  
Phi stood up, gave him a big bear hug and hurried back out of the library. Devic turned around to see about twenty five pairs of eyes staring at him, "Oh, get back to your work!"  
  
***Twenty-minutes 'till Midnight...***  
  
"Alex, Alex, wake up...We need to go!"  
  
Alex rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed, yawning softly. Tom was already wide-awake and alert, and Phi cracked open their door and motioned for them to come out, "Come on..."  
  
Alex shook his head, trying to wake himself up completely and threw on a black overcoat. Phi had a long draping cape thing with a hood on it and Tom was just wearing dark clothes. Alex sighed and struggled to his feet. He would have to be 100% alert for this, he wasn't going to let anything bad happen to anyone this time...except for maybe Trycos...  
  
The three slinked outside into the hallway and down the corridor until they came upon the large set of stairs. Tom turned to the others, "All right. If either of you wants to turn back, go ahead and do so now, after this, I don't think that there will be another good point in time for us to turn around..." Phi and Alex shook their heads and they continued down the stairs and out of the Palace. A soft, drifting snow had begun to fall and Alex pulled his coat a little tighter around his shoulders to keep the breeze from blowing in.  
  
The full moon lit their way as they continued through the Palace gate and down the main street until they at last reached the alleyway. And there was Trycos, standing half in shadows, looming silently over the street, half-invisible to the average passer-by. The man smiled and motioned for them to step closer, a small smile playing on his face, "Ahh...So you all actually made it. I was sure at least one of you would loose your courage and not show, but it seems that I have underestimated you again. Would you care to come in?"  
  
Tom stared at the man and answered back stiffly, "No thank you, we are fine where we are."  
  
"I thought you might say that...So, what would you three now be needing my help for...obviously to do something that no one else can, otherwise, you wouldn't be asking me. My, my, it must be hard for you...So much hatred and distrust..." As he said this, Phi felt a slight tickling in the back of her mind and knew that Trycos was prodding again.  
  
Tom must have felt it too because he glared at the man, "Enough. Although you probably already know why we are here, I should probably tell you anyway. After you hurt Numair, he has been unable to move from his bed." Trycos's eyebrow rose but he did not interrupt. "However, he is the only one we knew of that can open up a transdimensional gateway so we can get back home to our world. But then we realized that there was someone else who knew how to open it...you."  
  
"Indeed I know how..." Trycos took a step closer to them and began to walk up to Tom, "You know, the two of us aren't so very different...Both brilliant, talented, devoted to what we do, and our choice in self mutilation..." Trycos's arm reached out and grabbed Tom's hand before he had time to react. Trycos grinned and turned Tom's hand over so his palm was showing, and also where his burn scar was from the last adventure they had had in Tortall, "That must have hurt a lot..."  
  
Tom pulled his hand back and stared at Trycos, slightly unnerved. Alex stepped forward, coming between Tom and the man, "Oh, come off it. You two are nothing alike. For one, you're insane, and Tom's not! Now are you going to help us or not?!"  
  
Trycos took a step back and folded his arms over his chest, obviously amused by Alex's outburst. Tom however, had seemed to recover and you could almost hear his mind buzzing with thoughts as Trycos said, "Perhaps I will, but maybe I will not...It all depends on the...pay I receive for my services..."  
  
This was the moment Alex had been dreading but as he looked into Trycos's eyes he realized that the man knew it, "Fine, what do you want?"  
  
"Well, the man stepped forward again and circled around the group slowly, "It does get...lonely stuck in that room all by myself...I would...love to have someone to share it with me..."  
  
Phi stiffened and glared at Trycos. He was talking about her! "I don't think so!"  
  
Trycos stepped closer to her and she felt Alex tense up behind her, "Why not? You could have anything, anything you want...even immortality."  
  
"I'd rather die then be stuck with you for eternity!"  
  
Trycos smiled and stepped away, knowing the entire time that that was going to be the answer. He just wanted to bother Alex. "Very well...I am a man of very few material needs however, and I can't think of anything that interests me enough to transport you back home..."  
  
Tom thought desperately to himself. There had to be something that this guy wanted! They had to get home, but maybe if they traded him for something smaller than his services, it would work out, "Well if you won't take us back home, can you at least tell us how to cure Numair?"  
  
"What?" The man laughed, "Why would I want to do that? That annoying bugger got what he deserved...No, I don't think I will..."  
  
Phi was getting frustrated, "There has to be something you would be willing to trade for that?! I mean, come on, all you have to do is just tell us how to change him back!"  
  
Trycos turned to her, "You are right, that is all I would have to do. But tell me," he lowered his voice so that she had to lean in to hear him, "Why would I want to?" Phi gapped at him, speechless. Why would he want to? There was no reason for him to do so, "Then again, maybe I could be...persuaded..." He lifted his hand up and reached out to touch Phi's face.  
  
Alex narrowed his eyes and pulled Phi back, "I don't think so...we'll find another way."  
  
Trycos straightened up and smiled. He was enjoying himself, and things were just getting better by the second, "There is no other way boy! Haven't you realized that by now? Are you really that stupid?"  
  
Alex's grip on Phi's arm became tighter and she squeezed his hand, trying to calm him. She knew that his temper usually was the thing that got him into a lot of fights in high school and she was sure that a fight with Trycos wouldn't turn out well. Tom remained silent through all of this, taking in everything that was said, and suddenly he understood everything. Trycos didn't really like Phi, he just was trying to get Alex to come at him so that he could probably do the same to Alex as he did to Numair.  
  
It seemed that Phi understood what was going on too. She stepped away from Alex and looked Trycos straight in the eye, "Fine. Whatever...Just promise that you will tell us what we want to know after this..."  
  
Trycos looked momentarily surprised, a look that Tom had never seen on his face before, but the man quickly hid it with a smirk, "Okay, I promise..." He reached up, put his arm around Phi's shoulders and kissed her. Alex lunged forward but Tom managed to hold him back as Phi pushed away, looking sick. Trycos had a strange look in his eyes for a moment, but then he returned back to his normal self, "Very well, let's see, to return the spying mage back to his normal, bothersome self, all you have to do is convince him that there is no pain."  
  
Tom's jaw dropped and Phi began to scrub violently at her mouth as if trying to rid herself of his taste, "You mean it was just another illusion?!"  
  
Trycos's grin widened, "Yes, and if I may say so myself, a very good one at that...Did all of you really believe that I would be able to cast such a strong spell in such a short time? It would be an impossible feat, although I feel very honored that you thought I could do such a thing..." He then turned on his heels and disappeared into the alleyway. Alex tried to dive after him, but he collided shoulder first into a brick wall that appeared where the opening of the alley was a second ago and he bounced off it, and landed next to Tom, who gave him a hand up.  
  
Phi spit onto the ground, "Ugh...That had to be the most disgusting thing I have ever done in my life!"  
  
Tom pulled Alex up and away from the area and grabbed hold of Phi's sleeve, "Yes, but now we know how to cure Numair..."  
  
"That cheating, lying...that wasn't a fair trade! I can't believe Phi had to...with him!...just for...!"  
  
Tom shook his head as Alex continued to rant on, "Ya, me neither, now let's get home and get some sleep. We can cure Numair in the morning after he's had a night's rest"  
  
By the time they got back to the Palace, Alex had finally stopped cursing at Trycos after he used up all the Tortallian, English, and Spanish swear words he could think of and Phi had stopped scrubbing her mouth. Tom sighed as they began to climb up the stairs and stumbled into his room. Why did it seem that when they came to Tortall, they never got a decent night of sleep? He walked inside and flopped down onto the bed falling asleep almost instantly. Alex stopped in front of his door and looked uncomfortably at Phi for a while.  
  
She looked down at her feet and grinned, "You know, Trycos only kissed me to bug you..."  
  
"I know..." Alex sighed and Phi looked up at him, "I guess I kind of overreacted a bit..."  
  
She smiled and put her arms around his shoulders, "No, not really..."  
  
He blinked and pulled her closer as they kissed. Phi pulled her head away gently and rested it on his shoulder, "I just hope the next time someone wants to kiss me, it will be you..."  
  
He blinked as she walked away and went into her room. He stood there for a moment, ran his fingers through his hair and walked back into his own room, making sure to throw a sheet on Tom before collapsing on his own bed and dozing off.  
  
A/N: Come on people, I want reviews! Honestly...My last story was getting twice as much response as this one is...maybe I'm losing my touch? Or maybe fewer people are reading it because it is a sequel...hmm...maybe... 


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Thank you Mandas for reviewing, if there was an award I would give it to you, along with some other semi-faithful reviewers, but sadly, there is no such award and it would be beyond my power to do so...  
  
***  
  
Phi woke up the next morning to the sound of a very loud bird chirping right outside her window. She groaned and rolled over in her bed, then suddenly sprang awake, remembering that she had something very important to do. As her mind got back into gear, she scrambled out of bed, dashed over to her dresser, yanked some breeches and a long-sleeved shirt on and barged out of the room and into the hallway. She knocked loudly on Tom and Alex's door, it seemed to be past nine so she wasn't too worried about waking people up, "Hey, you guys! Get up! We have stuff to do, remember?"  
  
There was a loud thump from inside and the squeaking of floorboards. A very disgruntled looking Tom poked his head out of the door and from inside the room Phi could just make out Alex tangled up in his bed sheets on the ground, "Thanks for the rude awakening...We'll be out in a few minutes..." He glanced back at Alex who was still struggling to free himself from the sheets, "...Actually, make that ten minutes..." He closed the door again and Phi waited impatiently for them to come out.  
  
Finally the door reopened and Tom and Alex stepped out looking slightly dishelved, but nonetheless awake, "Okay, let's go..."  
  
Tom led the way down the stairs and to the infirmary. He figured that they had better tell Duke Baird about what they had learned last night before they told Numair, just to save the man from doing any extra, unnecessary work. Tom knocked on the door and went inside and was met by a very sleep-deprived Duke Baird. Tom took a deep breath and hoped that he wouldn't slip up. They needed to tell the duke about the cure without telling him how they got it. He exhaled slowly and began to choose his words carefully so that he wouldn't have to contradict himself later, "Last night...we were sitting up trying to think of a cure for Numair when we got an idea. Maybe...the sickness that Numair has...isn't real and maybe it is just another one of Trycos's mind tricks..."  
  
The Duke blinked at him several times. Tom hesitated, not sure what was going through the older mans mind and didn't want to sound suspicious. Duke Baird stared for a moment longer than said quietly, almost to himself, "Of course..." He looked at Tom, "Perhaps that is why it never responded to any of the tests that I ran on it, and why it didn't show any other symptoms! Ingenious really...the whole time it was a sickness only in Numair's mind because Trycos put it their and his Gift made it reality!"  
  
Tom nodded, "So technically, all we have to do to cure Numair is convince him that there is no sickness and then he would be better again."  
  
"Yes, but I am afraid that is easier said than done my boy...to change another's mind about something that seems so real to them will indeed be a difficult task..." The Duke fell silent for a moment, then headed slowly to the door, "We will need Daine's help for this one...Numair can be quite stubborn at times..."  
  
Alex grinned and followed Duke Baird to Numair's study. His and Daine's bedrooms were also attached to the room, but before the entered Numair's room, the Duke knocked on Daine's door. She answered looking as if she had already been up several hours, with Kitten at her heels. She looked somewhat surprised to see them, "Um...is there something I can do for you?"  
  
Duke Baird nodded, "As a matter of fact, there is. Tom, Phi, and Alex have come up with a probable theory for a cure to Numair's illness."  
  
Daine looked excited and relieved, "Thank the gods...He hasn't had a decent night of sleep ever since he got back. What is the cure?"  
  
"Well, Tom, Alex, and Phi's idea was this, that Trycos used one of his mind tricks on Numair and all the pain that he is feeling is just some sort of complexed illusion. I have to say that I agree with their idea because there is really no other explanation for the strange qualities that this 'disease' contains..."  
  
Daine stared at them for a moment, "Are you saying that Numair is just imagining all of this?"  
  
"No, not imagining really. Trycos, as I understand it, was able to get inside his head and project the thought of the pain into his head and Trycos's Gift made it real for Numair."  
  
"So how do we cure it?"  
  
"That's where we need your help Daine. We need to convince him that there is not really a disease...but it will be difficult."  
  
"We'll see about that..."  
  
***  
  
Daine crept softly into Numair's room, not wanting to wake him if he was finally asleep, but as always, it seemed that his 'pains' were keeping him from sleeping. He was wide-awake in his bed, and jumped slightly as his door creaked open and she stepped inside, "Good morning! I did not expect to see you up this early!"  
  
"Yes well, some things needed to be taken care of...but I have some good news!"  
  
"And what would that be?" Numair winced and propped himself up on his elbows.  
  
"Duke Baird, Tom, Alex, and Phi have found a cure for you."  
  
"Really? This is extraordinary! Come Daine, what is it?"  
  
A small grin played upon Daine's face and she sat down on the edge of his bed. He was not going to enjoy her answer. Numair always prided himself on being hard to fool, "Well, it seems that...you were never really ill at all..."  
  
Numair's jaw dropped, "Never really ill?! Then what about these pains that I am feeling right now as we speak?"  
  
Daine sighed, "I think that Duke Baird better explain this to you..."  
  
The Duke walked inside, followed by Tom, Alex, and Phi, "Numair, it is quite a simple explanation really. This whole thing is just another one of Trycos's tricks, you have and are currently sort of imagining the pains and Trycos's Gift has made them real for you."  
  
The mage looked blankly at the healer, "But...how?...I am confused..."  
  
Tom stepped forward, "Numair, remember that wall that Trycos made appear at the entrance of his alleyway when he didn't want anyone to enter it?"  
  
"Yes..."  
  
"And do you remember how real it felt, and how sure you were that it was real until you saw it dissolve right in front of your eyes?"  
  
"...yes..."  
  
"Well, that's kinda what's going on here..."  
  
A red flush filled Numair's face, "Why that lying boy has played me for a fool! I can not believe that I let myself be tricked so easily!" He sat up straight in his bed, throwing his covers aside, embarrassment and rage taking the place of his sickness, "Why, when I get my hands on that little worm, he'll wish that he had never been born!"  
  
Daine laughed, "There you go! You look just fine now, except your pride that is...That sounded exactly like something Lady Alanna would have said!"  
  
Alex grinned, "Actually, she did say it..."  
  
Numair stood up cautiously, "Well than we shall kill Trycos together, along with any others who want a swing at him...but first, we need to get you three back to your own home..."  
  
Phi smiled, "What, you think that we don't want to hurt Trycos too?"  
  
A murderous look appeared in Alex's eyes, "Ya Numair, I wouldn't mind joining you guys..."  
  
"I wouldn't hear of it!" Alanna and George stepped into the room, smiling,. Alanna shook her head, closed the door, and continued, "You three have spent more time than you probably should have already staying here, and your families are probably worried sick about you!"  
  
Alex sighed, "Ya, guess you're right about that...What are you two doing down here anyway?"  
  
George took his hands out his pockets, "Well, we heard that someone had found a cure for Numair so we hurried on down to see if it was true, and by the looks of it, it was...Besides, with the endless negotiations still goin' on, there was not much else ta do!"  
  
Numair grimaced and sat down on the bed again, trying to let his muscles adjust back to their normal strength, "Well, I am glad to find I am such a large priority for you George, but I must be getting back to work...and then we can begin to plan our hunting party...  
  
"Oh?" George's eyebrow lifted, "And just what are you after in this season?"  
  
"Not much...just Trycos..."  
  
A grin lit Alanna's face and she fingered her dagger absentmindedly, "I shall be glad to join you Numair...sounds like fun..."  
  
Numair nodded, stood back up again, and walked shakily over to the door, "Yes, I am sure it will be, but first we must get these three back home..."  
  
He opened the door and Devic and Will spilled into the room. Numair raised his eyebrows, "Well, it seems that we have two uninvited guests in our midst...Besides Alanna and George anyway..."  
  
Will leapt up and stood behind Devic as the young teen stood up bashfully, "Well...we, uh...heard Lady Alanna talking to George and we...um...decided to check things out for ourselves..."  
  
George laughed, "What a confession! Here boy, you ought to learn to lie better, it makes for better entertainment!"  
  
Devic blush deepened, "I think we'll be going now..." He nodded to Will and they scurried out of the room.  
  
A small grin played upon Duke Baird's mouth as he watched the two leave, "They remind me of Dom and Neal when they were little..."  
  
Alanna smiled and shook her head, "It is amazing how people can influence each other..."  
  
Phi grinned, "What do you mean?"  
  
"I remember when Devic first came to the Palace to be trained as a knight, actually, you three where there for part of it and probably the reason for why he turned out the way he did. When he got here, he was quiet and shy with few friends and fewer enemies. But then you had your adventure and he got entangled in it. He grew to be a leader, lost his friends but gained most of the others, save a few, as his allies. And now he is helping William come out of his shell and take on the world...I almost wish that something would happen every year to the first year pages...it brings out their true character..."  
  
George rolled his eyes, "Yes, but I'd rather have some of them not show their character at all...like that rascal Mycrus ...I don't know what's wrong with him, but he defiantly has some issues...I guess I was out of place saying that but hey, I don't really care..." He took a step towards the open door.  
  
Alanna sighed and grabbed her husband by the sleeve before he could escape, "Well, if everything's done around here, we best be getting back to the negotiations..."  
  
George scowled, "Must we? Oh all right, but I won't stay the entire day...I think I would bore myself to death, although the arguments can get rather interesting...especially when I start to contribute to the name calling...I have some pretty interesting one's stored up still!"  
  
"I know dear, and sometimes I think that is the only reason that Jon lets you stay is because you can always get the upper hand during the insults...come on!"  
  
George sighed and mockingly bid the others farewell as Alanna rolled her eyes and dragged him out of the room.  
  
Numair waited until they disappeared before walking over out the room into his study to begin to prepare for the spell. He nodded to Duke Baird as he took his leave and waved at Tom and the other to come over to him. When they had gathered around his desk he turned to them and said, "It will take me only about a day to prepare the spell again for you to use..."  
  
Alex looked confused, "Then how come you were able to get the spell up and running so quickly when we came here?"  
  
"Well, it was actually a very badly made and dangerous spell...and as you probably remember, the landing wasn't to smooth...besides, I knew where you were and were I was bringing you to. Sending you back is a little trickier because I have to align the spell perfectly so I don't accidentally drop you off inside a tree back in your own world..." Phi and Tom winced and Numair nodded in agreement, "I wouldn't be a very pretty sight, I can tell you that much...Oh! I must also thank you for coming up with the idea for my cure! How did you ever come up with the idea?"  
  
Tom was momentarily caught off guard by the question and hesitated and stuttered for a few moments, "Well...we, um...we, just...were, staying up late and I suppose it just sort of came to us..."  
  
Daine raised her eyebrows and cast Numair a glance before wandering back into her own room, "You sound just about as sure of your answer as Devic was with his..."  
  
Numair shrugged as Daine disappeared into her room and gently shut the door, "I have to agree with her but if you don't want to tell me how you really came up with it, I won't pry any further..." He cast Tom a glance before saying, "You three should probably start packing your stuff up and get ready to leave anyway so when the time comes you won't be too stressed."  
  
Tom nodded and ushered Alex and Phi out of the room, "Thank you, we'll do that!"  
  
When they were out in the hallway, Alex stopped being pushed and turned around to face Tom, "Do you think he knows?"  
  
"I dunno...But then again, it doesn't really matter now since we're going home and all..."  
  
"Ya, I suppose...but something in the way he looked at you made me wonder..."  
  
Phi shrugged her shoulders, "I don't think he does. I do think he knows something happened, but I doubt that he would be able to guess what..."  
  
"Would it really be such a big deal to tell him?"  
  
Phi, Tom, and Alex whipped around and found themselves face to face with Devic and Will. Phi exhaled, "Devic! What are you trying to do, give us heart attacks? I see that you two have made a habit out of eavesdropping..."  
  
"Ya well, You get could information that way..."  
  
"Who told you that? I'm almost positive that it wasn't me...although it could have been..."  
  
Devic glanced from Phi to Alex to Tom, "So what are you going to do now?"  
  
Alex shrugged, "Start packing, I guess, not much else to do..."  
  
Devic nodded and fell silent for a moment before shaking himself awake again, "All right...See you soon then!"  
  
He grabbed his little cousin's arm and walked off towards the dinning hall.  
  
Phi sighed as they headed up to their rooms, "I'm going to miss him..."  
  
A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long...I had a serious case of writer's block trying to figure out where I should end the story and what should happen next in the plot...any suggestions would be welcome (As long as they are sane ones!)! 


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Alrighty...Let's see...hmm...I guess this is going to be the last (or second to last chapter huh?) Time sure flies when you're having fun...especially when you don't have writer's block...  
  
***Phi's View***  
  
Phi sat down on her bed and stared out the window. She had come upstairs to pack, but quickly realized that she didn't really have anything to pack, except her real clothes, and she had put those on as soon as she had come up to her room. It was strange, coming back a second time, and saying good-bye to all her friends in Tortall twice. A grin lit her face and she wondered silently to herself if they were going to have to come back yet again...and have to say good-bye a third time. It was always the roughest part of any relationship, and she wasn't looking forward to the next few hours. After she got home, she would be fine, relatively of course, but wasn't this like her home too?  
  
She flopped down onto the bed and her thoughts began to stray. And how should she say good-bye to those people she had gotten rather attached to? Like Kel, Alanna, George, Numair, Daine, and Devic? Maybe, she just would wing it...it would be easier that way... Her eyelids began to grow heavy and Phi closed her eyes and began to drift to sleep.  
  
***  
There was a loud knocking on her door and she jumped up, into a sitting position, trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes, "Uh...Come in!"  
  
Tom peered inside the room, "It's time for us to go Phi..."  
  
Her face fell. She had slept through all of her preparation time, "Oh...um...Okay..."  
  
Tom sighed. She looked so sad, like when she was little and their dad told them it was time to leave Disneyland. Phi trudged over to the door, glanced one more time back at her room, and followed Tom slowly down the hallway. Alex joined them at the top of the stairs, and together the three marched downstairs as if they were headed to the gallows. It's not that they didn't want to go home, because they did, but they were never going to be able to come here again.  
  
Devic met them at the bottom of the stairs, looking very much like he had something to say, but was too embarrassed to say it, so instead, he gave the three a weak smile and followed them outside. There they joined up with Numair, Alanna, George, Kel, Esmond, Owen, and Dom (who looked very glad to be out of the wretched confines of the negotiation room, although and agreement was slowly being made.).  
  
Tom looked up at the small group and grinned, "We thought most of you would be busy!"  
  
Kel smiled, "No, not that busy. Besides, we wanted to be here in case Trycos tried to pull anything off while you three were going back to your world..."  
  
George added, "...And I always love a good magic show..."  
  
Numair shot the older man a glance and rolled up the sleeves of his robes, "I suppose I should get started then." His hands began to glow black, "Try to remember if you have forgotten anything..."  
  
They all ran down a mental list of what they brought with them and Phi let out a little squeak, "My motorcycle!"  
  
Numair nodded at her while he began to focus his energy on a certain spot on the ground, "Well, go and get it then..."  
  
Phi ran off around the corner of the building and began to look around frantically for her bike. It had to be around here somewhere! Oh, there it is! She ran over to it, brushed the snow off and wheeled it away from the wall to quickly examine it. The tires were shot and it was out of gas, but it looked like it was salvageable. She sighed with relief, glad that she had remembered to take it with her, but something in the bushes nearby caught her eye.  
  
She reeled back and almost tripped over her motorcycle as Trycos emerged from the bushes. As she scrambled back, he held up his hands in some sort of peace sign, "Do not worry...I am not here to hurt you, this time anyway. I am just here as an observer today."  
  
"Observing what...?"  
  
"Oh I do not know...life I suppose. Now that you have had your little adventure at my expense, I have come to realize that now the guards will be much more suspicious towards my doings and it will make me put much more thought into my plans..." Phi narrowed her eyes suspiciously and began to back away slower, confused as to why he was talking to her like this. "Oh don't worry lass, I don't have anything...up my sleeve...I just wanted to...bid you and your friends good-bye, and to wish you...good-luck in your adventures. You have returned to me the thing that I had treasured most in my life for almost ninety-five years...the thrill of the hunt."  
  
Phi nodded slowly, "Well...um...If you don't really have anything horrible planned for us, I'll be going now..." Very slowly, she wheeled her bike back to the corner of the building, and then took off at a sprint back to the group, leaving a grinning Trycos standing in the bushes.  
  
When she reached them Alex turned to her and frowned, "Are you all right Phi?"  
  
"Ya...I think so..." She was slightly pale but gave Alex a stern look and he slowly turned back around, unconvinced. The portal had grown in her absence and was now the size of a large window. Sweat was beginning to appear on Numair's forehead, and there was a small humming noise coming from the swirling whirlpool of black magic.  
  
As it expanded and reached the size of a door, a small rift appeared in the center of the portal and slowly opened, revealing the now familiar clearing in Golden Gate Park. Numair turned to them and motioned with his head that they should go through now.  
  
The three stepped forward and right before they stepped through, Phi turned around and waved to Devic as she was swallowed up by the magic and thrown into the other world.  
  
***Back in our world***  
  
The landing this time was a lot smoother...in comparison anyway. Tom grimaced as he stood up after being thrown to the ground after stepping through and thought to himself, "Numair must be getting used to it by now..."  
  
Phi groaned and pried herself off the handlebars of her motorcycle and stood up shakily, also managing to grab Alex's arm and hoist himself up before he fell back down after trying to stand up. Tom glanced around and slowly rose to his feet, "So..." he hesitated for a moment, not quite sure what he should say. That good-bye had felt a lot harder to get over than the last one did, but he supposed that they should move on. He sighed, "How long do you think we've been gone this time?"  
  
Alex groaned and muttered something about his parents killing him, and Phi shrugged, "I dunno, two weeks maybe..." Suddenly, she realized what she had just said, "Oh shit! School's probably started again!"  
  
Despite their situation, a small grin lit Tom's face at seeing his sister being so worried about school starting, "What, so now you care about school?"  
  
"No! It's just that I haven't done any of my homework yet!"  
  
Tom's grin became a smile and he threw his arm over his little sister's shoulder, "Well, maybe Alex and I can give you a little hand on that..."  
  
Alex glanced up at his friend, "Are you saying that we should help Phi to cheat?" When Tom shrugged Alex laughed, "Oh my god, the world is coming to an end! Tom the teacher's pet is telling Phi to cheat!"  
  
Tom rolled his eyes, "Sometimes, drastic situations require drastic answers..." Alex continued to grin at him, Tom sighed and began to walk out of the woods, "You're never going to let me forget about this are you?"  
  
"Not in a million years..."  
  
***In Tortall...***  
  
Numair sighed and let the portal collapse and dissolve back into his hands. He flexed his fingers and turned to the others, "All right...that was not so bad, was it?" When no one answered right away, Numair nodded knowingly and began to walk back to the Palace, followed closely by Alanna and George, "Or maybe it was..."  
  
Esmond, Dom, and Owen left next and Kel stayed long enough to pat Devic awkwardly on the back before turning and joining her friends. Devic stood and stared at the spot where Tom, Alex, and Phi vanished, wishing for the second time in his life that they could have stayed but realizing for the second time that they would have never been able to. To tell the truth, they had become, and probably were, the closest thing that he really had to true friends. He had friends who were squires and even some that were pages, but although they would stand by him, he was never able to talk to them. As he stood there thinking, a tugging came into the back of his mind, willing him to turn around.  
  
He hesitated for a moment, then slowly turned and came face to face, almost literally with a very happy looking Trycos. Devic's body spasmed automatically and he fell back into the snow, reaching for the small dagger that was attached to his belt. Trycos's smile widened, "Please boy. If I wanted to hurt you, you would be dead already. You should really pay closer attention to when your mind tells you to do something...Next time, it might actually be important."  
  
"What do you want? Why are you here?"  
  
"Do you really think that I would tell you what I am doing here boy? Do you think that I would be that stupid? Yes, of course you would. But no, I am here for only one reason, to make sure that the three travelers got back safely to their own time. Yes, it surprises you that I would want to do that, I can see it in your eyes and read it in your mind. But know that I have my reasons, and you shall know them when the time comes, and I am ready to show them."  
  
Devic glared at the man and jumped to his feet, unsheathing his dagger with his trained quickness and shoved it into Trycos's chest. He released the blade and watched in hatred as Trycos laughed and slowly began to disappear into the thin air, "Nice try boy, but it will take more than that to stop me, but I invite you to try."  
  
His dagger fell to the ground and landed in a snowdrift where Trycos's feet used to be. Devic blinked and felt a strange heat rise up inside his that he had only felt once before, three years ago. Oh he would try all right, and he would make Trycos pay...somehow...  
  
The thirteen-year -old marched into the Palace, ignoring everything but where he was walking and stormed into his room and slammed the door shut. He ran his fingers through his dusty blonde hair absent-mindedly and sat heavily down onto his bed. He dropped his hands to his side and stuck them deep into his pockets as a million thoughts raced through his head. He was sure that somehow he would have to be able to find a way to join the knights and hunt down Trycos like the animal that he was. He was just about to start brainstorming all sorts of ways to reek his revenge upon Trycos when he felt something in his pocket. He pulled it out and flipped it around in his hands. It was a folded piece of paper, with his name on it.  
  
He frowned, trying to remember when anyone would have had the chance to slip anything into his pockets, but then his curiosity got the better of him and he carefully unfolded it. A small smile appeared on his face as he began to read. "Dear Devic, I didn't know if I would be up to saying good- bye to you properly in front of the group that is sure to see us off, so I decided that the easiest thing to do was to write you a letter. I just wanted to let you know that even though we didn't get to spend to much time together, at least time together that we weren't trying to save our lives, that I still really enjoyed your company and am very glad that Tortall can have a person like you to help and guide them. Even though sometimes you don't play by the rules (which is sometimes necessary to do the right things in life...), you are a true leader (whether you like it or not!), and you have the real makings of a hero in you. Even I can tell that, and Alanna, Kel, and HaMich can see it too, even if they don't say it out loud. It has been a real pleasure knowing you and I am certain that you are destined for great things! -Love your friend, Phiona." He put the letter down on his bed and fell back onto it, all thoughts of hatred replaced by those of a happy anxiousness for having the future arrive.  
  
A/N: Yay! Whoo-hoo! I'm done with another story! Please, please, please, tell me how you liked it! If I get enough reviews, I could add an epilogue if you guys want...But please, REVIEW! Thank you. 


	21. Author's Note

Author's Note:  
  
All right! Finished with the second story? I'm sorry if it took you a ridiculously long time to get here, especially after slogging through the first story, but you made it! You're 2/3 done, and you're on your way to the climax!  
  
Just to give you an idea of what you are getting into assuming that you accept your assignment to read my third and final story; I will mostly be completely focusing on my original characters (Phi, Alex, Tom, Devic, Trycos, etc.) I will do this because I have a strict law about not messing up Pierce's characters that she came up with, which is why I developed my own to mess up. I still promise though that if you are in to my characters, it will be fun, and I will be using all the possible aspects of Tortall itself to make the story still a fanfiction (including Immortals, conflicts between civilizations, etc.)  
  
- the infamous ShadowPirate 


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